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• 



THE HISTORY 



OF 



Compulsory Education 



IN 



NEW ENGLAND 



A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS, 
LITERATURE, AND SCIENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY 
OF CHICAGO, IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DE- 
GREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 



BY 



JOHN WILLIAM PERRIN, AJVI. 



MEADVILLE, PENN'A 
1896 



•v 



THE HISTORY 



OF 



Compulsory Education 



IN 



NEW ENGLAND 



A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of Arts, Literature, and 

Science of the University of Chicago, in Candidacy 

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 



BY 



JOHN WILLIAM PERRIN, A.M. 




MEADVILLE, PENN'A 




be i?/ 



Copyright, 1896, 
By John William Perrin. 



Printed and Bound by Flood & Vincent, The Chautauqua-Century Press, Meadville, Pa. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory : The Origin of Modern Compulsory 
Education, and the Progress of Universal Edu- 
cation and the Principle of Compulsion in the 
Sixteenth Century 5 

CHAPTER II. 

The Principle of Compulsion in New England. 1620- 

1800 17 

CHAPTER III. 

Indirect Compulsion : The Factory Laws of Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut 33 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Truancy Problem in Massachusetts. 1 845-1 890 . 46 

CHAPTER V. 
The General Compulsory Laws of New England. 

1852-1890 57 



THE HISTORY OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION 
IN NEW ENGLAND 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory : The Origin of Modern Compulsory Edu- 
cation, and the Progress of Universal Education 
and the Principle of Compulsion in the 
Sixteenth Century. 

Modern compulsory education has its origin in the Reforma- 
tion.* The making of man responsible for the religious "faith 
that is within him" put upon each one the obligation of reading 
and understanding the Bible for himself. It made the education of 
the people, among all branches of the Protestant faith, a religious 
duty to be as carefully and conscientiously performed as any other 
duty contained in the religious creed they had accepted. This 
explains the great attention that Luther and Calvin, the chief 
exponents of the Protestant reform, gave to the establishment of 
schools for the people. During the remainder of Luther's life after 
his revolt from Rome, he advocated universal education and urged 
the establishment of schools for the masses. While he believed 
"the church is the mother of the school," he urged the establish- 



* In the sixth year of the reign of James IV. of Scotland (1494), a statute ordered all 
barons and freeholders to put their sons and heirs at school " from six or nine years of age 
and keep them there until they should have perfect Latin under a penalty of ^"20." After 
that they were to study Philosophy and Law for three years. This statute was not universal 
in its application ; it applied only to the upper classes. In this respect it differs from present 
day legislation on this subject. Macpherson's "Annals of Commerce," Vol. II., p. 7. See 
also, " Historical Survey of Education in Scotland Prior to the Establishment of the Present 
System," in Report of Commissioner of Education, 1889-90, Vol. I., p. 217. 



6 The History of Compulsory Education 

ment and support of schools by municipalities. In 1524, in an 
address on this subject to the mayors and aldermen of Germany he 
says: "Dear rulers, if we must spend so much yearly upon 
artillery, roads, bridges, dykes, and innumerable other things of 
the same kind, in order that a city may have temporal peace and 
tranquillity, why should we not spend as much on the poor, needy 
youth, that we may support an able man or two for school- 
master?"* He not only urged the establishment of schools by 
every city and village for the sake of the mental and moral train- 
ing of the youth, but he urged such a course as a duty the 
municipality owed to itself. He believed that the safety, strength, 
and perpetuity of municipalities depended more on the schools 
they established than on their armies and fortifications. In the 
address which has just been quoted he emphasizes this belief in no 
uncertain language. "Therefore it is becoming," he says, "for 
the council and the magistrates to have the greatest care and 
diligence for the youth. For since the good, the honor, the life, 
and the activity of a great city is committed to their faithful hands, 
they do not act justly before God and the world when they do not 
seek the prosperity and improvement of the city with all their 
power, night and day. Now a city's prosperity lies not alone 
in accumulating great treasures, producing strong walls, beautiful 
houses, and munitions of war ; indeed where there is much of this, 
and reckless fools come into power, it is so much the worse, and of 
greater detriment to the city. But this is the best and richest 
increase, prosperity, and strength of the city, that it has many 
polished, learned, judicious, honorable, and well-bred citizens ; 
who when they have been able to accumulate treasures and great 

*An die Burgermeister mid Rathsherren aller Stadte Deutschlands, dasz sie christliche 
Schulen aufrichten and halten sollen. 

" Liebe Herrcti, musz man jahrlich so viel wenden an Biichsen, Wege, Stege, Damme, und 
dergleichen unzahlige Stiicke mehr, damit eine Stadt zeitlichen Frieden und Gemach habe; 
warum sollte man nicht vielmehr doch auch so viel wenden an die durstige arme Jugend, dasz 
man einem geschickten Mann oder zwei zu Schulmeistern hielte? "—Dr. Martin Luther's re- 
formatorische Schriften von Dr. Karl Zimmermann (Darmstadt, 1847), Zweiter Band, 
Seite .5/7. 



In New England. 7 

wealth may keep and use them rightly."* Again, in a letter to 
John the Constant, who had succeeded his brother Frederick the 
Wise as elector in 1525, he says : "Where there is a city which has 
the ability, your electoral grace has the power to compel [the 
people] to support schools, pulpits, and parishes. If they will not 
do it for their salvation, then consider that your electoral grace, as 
highest guardian of the youth and of all others needing super- 
vision, shall compel them to do so, just as they are compelled 
to give and render services toward bridges, paths, and roads, or 
other matters pertaining to the public interest. ' ' f 

His plans for universal education did not end with the establish- 
ment and support of schools by municipalities. In his sermon on 
the " Duty of Sending Children to School," he maintains that it is 
both the right and the duty of the state to enact laws compelling 
parents to send their children to school. "I maintain," he says, 
"that the civil authorities are under obligations to compel the 
people to send their children to school. ... If the govern- 
ment can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear 
spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial 
duties in time of war ; how much more has it a right to compel the 
people to send their children to school, because in this case we are 



* " Darum will es hier dem Rath und der Obrigkeit gebiihren, die allergroszte Sorge und 
Fleisz auf das junge Volk zu haben. Denn weil der ganzen Stadt Gut, Ehre, Leib, und Leben 
ihnen zu treuer Hand befohlen ist, so thaten sie nicht rechtlich vor Gott und der Welt, so sie^ 
der Stadt Gedeihen und Besserung nicht suchten mit allem Vermogen Tag und Nacht. Nun 
liegt einer Stadt Gedeihen nicht allein darin, dasz man grosze Schatze sammle, feste Mauern, 
scheme Hauser, viele Biichsen und Harnishe zeuge ; ja, wo desz viel ist und tolle Narren da- 
riiber kommen, ist so viel desto arger und desto groszern Schade derselben Stadt, sondern 
das ist einer Stadt bestes und aller reichstes Gedeihen, Heil und Kraft, dasz sie ist so viel 
feiner, gelehrter, verniinftiger, ehrbarer, wohlgezogener Burger hat, die konnen darnach 
wohl Schatze und alles Gut sammeln, halten und recht brauchen."— Ibid., Seite 521. 

t" Wo eine Stadt oder Dorf ist, die des Vermogens sind, hat G. E. F. G. Macht sie zu 
zwingen, dasz sie Schulen, Predigtstiihle, Pfarren halten. Wollen sie es nicht zu ihrer Selig- 
keit thun, noch bedenken, so ist G. E. F. G. da, als oberster Vormund der Jugend und Aller 
die es bediirfen, und soil sie mit Gewalt dazu halten, daszu sie es thun mussen ; gleich als 
wenn man sie mit Gewalt zwingt, daszu sie zur Briicken, Steg, und Weg, oder sonst zufalliger 
Landesnoth geben und dienen."—Schreiben an den Kurfiirsten Johannes, 22sten November, 
1526. Zimmermann, Dritter Band, Seite 193 : 



8 The History of Compulsory Education 

warring with the devil, whose object it is secretly to exhaust our 
cities and principalities of their strong men."* 

Besides the establishment of schools, he urged the formation of 
libraries. " Finally," he says, "it is well for all those, who have 
so much love and desire, that schools and studies be established, 
and sustained in Germany, to keep in mind that we must spare no 
trouble nor expense to furnish good libraries, especially in great 
cities, where such are possible. For if the Gospel and all the arts 
are to remain, they must indeed be enclosed and bound up in 
books and writings."")" These libraries were not to include the 
writings of the school-men and the church fathers merely, but also 
the works of every great writer, whether pagan or Christian. 

The labors of Luther in behalf of universal education bore much 
good fruit from their beginning. In 1524 Duke John of Gotha 
granted a petition of the council, the parish, the dean, and the 
court, declaring for the Reformation. This was on Tuesday of 
Whitsuntide, and in August of the same year Frederick Myconius, 
Luther's intimate friend, was made evangelical minister and super- 
intendent of the duchy. In this year appeared Luther's address to 
the mayors and aldermen of Germany. Myconius considered it 
one of his principal duties to care for the schools. He fused those 
already in existence in Gotha into one, and established the new 
school thus formed in the convent of the Augustinians. % This was 
no easy task. Myconius himself says, "Schools and studies were 



* This sermon is not given in the edition of Luther's writings that I have used. The 
quotation is taken from "Luther on Education," by F. V. N. Painter, A.M. (Philadelphia, 
1889), p. 269. 

t" Zum letzten ist audi das vvohl zu bedenkeu alien denjenigen, so Liebe und Lust haben, 
dasz solche Schulen und Sprachen in deutsehen Landern aufgerichtet und erhalten werden, 
dasz man Fleisz und Kosten nicht spare, gute Libereien und Bucherhauser, sonderlich in den 
groszten Stadten, die solches wohl vermogen, zu verschaffen. Denn so das Evangelium und 
allerlei Kunst soil bleiben, musz je in Biicher und Schriften verfasset und angebunden sein." — 
Zimmermanu , Zweiter Band, Seite $36. 

% Dr. Henry P>arnard in speaking of this school calls Myconius " the founder of the gym- 
nasium." See " Systems, Institutions, and Statistics of Public Instruction in Different 
Countries," by Henry Barnard, LL. D. (New York, 1872), Part I., " Europe— German States," 
P- 575- 



In New England. 9 

utterly despised by the mob, and it would be much easier to find 
ten ready to storm and destroy a school, than one or two willing to 
help in building one." * In speaking further of the magnitude 
of his labors he says : ' ' Nobody would believe what an immense 
amount of labor is required to build a new house with warped and 
rotten wood. Oh, how long have we been compelled to work 
against the stream and to fetch everything from out of the fire. 
Now, God help us, that it may be preserved to our posterity." f 
When he had completed the organization of the town schools, he 
placed a rector, M. Monerus, at their head. Then he turned 
his attention to the establishment of elementary schools. This too 
was due to Luther's influence. In 1527 Luther had written a 
letter to the ministers asking ' ' that they should read the catechism 
to the children and servants every Sunday afternoon at church, and 
hear them recite. ' ' It was comparatively easy for the ministers of 
the towns to satisfy these demands. But in the country where they 
had in charge numerous chapels scattered over a wide territory, 
they were able to give but little attention to the young. To over- 
come this difficulty and to comply with Luther's wishes, a sub- 
stitute for the minister was found in his clerk or sacristan. In this 
appointment of the minister's clerk to take charge of the education 
of the youth, we have the beginning of the common schools in 
Gotha. 

In Thuringia, also, Luther's labors brought speedy and desired 
results. Here the propagandist of universal education was Philip 
Melancthon,! as in Gotha it had been Myconius. Like Myconius, 
Melancthon was an intimate friend of the great reformer. He was 
a man of great- learning and of much mental acuteness. In 1527, 
through the influence of Luther, John the Constant appointed him 
to visit and examine the schools of Thuringia. He traversed the 



* Ibid. 

t Ibid. Quoted there from Myconius' " History of the Reformation," p. 54. 
I His name was originally Schwarzerd (black earth), of which Melancthon is a Greek 
translation. 



io The History of Compulsory Education 

whole of this territory with Myconius and Justin Jonas. The 
results of his investigations were embodied in his ' ' Book of Visita- 
tion," which was published in the following year by the order of 
the elector. These labors of Melancthon had much significance in 
the further development of the educational ideas of the Reforma- 
tion. Out of them grew the "Saxony School-Plan," which after- 
wards became the educational system of most of the Protestant 
states of Germany. It demanded of the pastors that they should 
admonish the people of their charge on the necessity of sending 
their children to school that they might be trained ' ' to teach sound 
doctrine in the church, and to serve the state in a wise and able 
manner. ' ' 

There can be no doubt that this plan of Melancthon was based 
on one prepared by Luther four years earlier. In 1524 Luther 
wrote to Spalatin saying, ' ' I send you my sketch of the school as 
it should be, that you may lay it before the elector ; and though I 
do not expect that much heed will be given to it, yet I must 
venture, and leave the issue with God."* Melancthon himself says 
in a letter to Camerarius on the subject of his " Book of Visitation," 
' ' You will see that I have written nothing more than what Luther 
has prompted. ' ' f 

The influence of Melancthon' s labors did not end with the organ- 
ization of schools under the Saxony plan. The ' ' Book of Visita- 
tion " was the means of the establishment of an "Evangelical 
Church System ' ' which in matters of ecclesiastical doctrine and 
government asserted its own authority independently of the 
papacy. % 

One of the most important laws of this century was that given by 

*" Luther's Views of Education and Schools." From the German of Karl von Raumer. 
Barnard's Journal of Education, Vol. IV. (1S58), p. 442. 

\ Ibid. In a foot-note Von Raumer says, "Luther's plan, above referred to, I have never 
seen, nor is it, so far as I am aware, on record. That Melancthon, however, essentially 
agrees with it we have abundant cause to conclude." 

% Barnard's "Systems, Institutions, and Statistics of Public Instruction in Different 
Countries," Part [., " Europe— German States," p. 535. 



In New England. n 

Duke Christopher of Wiirtemberg in 1599. In that year he gave 
the first permanent regulations for the education of the common 
people. Universal education was not only provided for, but 
insisted upon. Pastors were required to admonish the parents of 
their congregations twice each year upon the duty and the ne- 
cessity of sending their children to school. Besides this, the 
schoolmasters were required to keep a register of all the boys in 
the district according to the classes to which they belonged. At 
the close of each recitation they were required to call this roll, and 
if the absentees were not able to give satisfactory excuses ' ' they 
were fined according to their deserts." These provisions were 
looked upon with favor by other districts of Germany, and in some 
instances laws of a similar nature were passed.* Nearly half a 
century before these provisions for the education of the common 
people were made, secondary schools were established throughout 
the duchy by the authority of the state. f May 15, 1559, Duke 
Christopher issued what is called the "Grand Ecclesiastical Order." 
The purpose of this order as stated in the preamble was ' ' to carry 
youths from the elements through successive grades to the degree 
of culture demanded for offices in the church and in the state. ' ' % 
This order received the sanction of the Diet in 1565, and with some 
modifications remained in force till 1803. As a result of this order, 
there were in Wiirtemberg, in 1607, forty-seven Latin schools 
(Lateinische Stadt-Schuleii) and eighteen cloister schools in opera- 
tion. || 

Wherever the Reformation spread, plans for universal education 
accompanied it. In 1542 the organization of the ecclesiastical 

* Ibid., p. 564. See also article on " Compulsory Education," by Prof. E. J. James in Lalor's 
" Cyclopeedia of Political Science, Political Economy and the Political History of the United 
States," Vol. II. 

f The same is true of other parts of Germany. According to Mr. George H. Martin, " A 
school law was adopted and schools opened in Brandenburg before 1540 ; in Wittenberg 
in 1559; in Saxony in 1560; in Hesse in 1565." " The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public 
School System," by George H. Martin, A. M. (New York, 1894), p. 20. 

I Barnard, p. 709. 

II Ibid., p. 710. 



i 2 The History of Compulsory Education 

state of Geneva was begun. In the ordinances given by Calvin on 
January 2 of that year, four orders of officers are named — pastors, 
teachers, elders, and deacons.* Provisions were made for the 
instruction of the people and the training of the children. Educa- 
tion was made universal, and so far as Cabin was able to realize his 
plans in this direction it was obligatory, f 

In 1560 the Protestants of France took up the cause of universal 
education. In that year the States-General of Orleans sent to the 
king the following memorial: " May it please the king to levy 
a contribution upon the church revenues for the reasonable support 
of teachers and men of learning in every city and village for the 
instruction of the needy youth of the country ; and let all parents 
be required, under penalty of a fine, to send their children to 
school, and let them be constrained to observe this law by the lords 
and ordinary magistrates." J Reasonable and just as were these 
recommendations, they did not meet with the approval of the king. 
Eleven years later on the recommendation of the queen, Jeanne 
d'Albret, the Estates of Navarre passed a law making primary 
instruction compulsory. Probably this was borrowed from Geneva. 
Queen Jeanne was a zealous Calvinist, and Calvin himself wrote to 
her at times concerning the affairs of her government. 

What Calvin did for education in Geneva, John Knox attempted 
to do in Scotland. ' ' The First Book of Discipline, prepared 
under Knox's direction in 1560, ordained that every several kirk 
should have one schoolmaster appointed, able to teach grammar 
and the Latin tongue ; this if the town is of any reputation. In the 
upland towns the minister is to take care of the children and 
instruct them in the first rudiments and in the catechism."! It 



* " The Period of the Reformation, 1517-1648," by Ludwig Haiisser (New York, 1873), p. 250. 
" History of the Reformation," by George P. Fisher, D.D. (New York, 1873), p. 217. 

+ " Education in the United States," by Richard G. Boone (New York, 1889), p. 6. 

J " The History of Pedagogy," by Gabriel Compayre. Translation by W. H. Payne, A.M. 
(Boston, 1886), p. 120. 

I Martin, p. 20. Cited there from the Works of John Knox, Laing (Edinburgh, 1848), \'<>l. 
II., p. 183. 



In New England. 13 

seems that but little if any assistance was given to Knox by the 
civil authorities in his endeavors to establish schools. Not till 
1633 was there a legal enactment for the establishment of schools. 
In that year it was ordained by parliamentary legislation "that a 
school should be established in every parish, and that the lands be 
assessed for that purpose."* 

Early in the history of the Reformation, Protestant Holland 
attained a higher standard of education for the masses than had 
been realized elsewhere. In speaking of the institutions of 
Antwerp, Motley says, ' ' The schools were excellent and cheap. 
It was difficult to find a child of sufficient age who could not read, 
write, and speak at least two languages."! Again he says: " The 
standard of culture in those flourishing cities was elevated, com- 
pared with that observed in many parts of Europe. The children 
of the wealthier classes enjoyed great facilities for education in all 
the great capitals. The classics, music, and the modern lan- 
guages, particularly the French, were universally cultivated. Nor 
was intellectual cultivation confined to the higher orders. On the 
contrary, it was diffused to a remarkable degree among the hard- 
working artisans and handicraftsmen of the great cities. ' ' \ 

The progress of the Reformation brought with it greater zeal for 
the education of the masses, and before the close of the sixteenth 
century there had been established a system of schools fostered by 
the state. A resolution was passed in the first Synod of Dort in 

* Ibid., p. 21. Report of Commissioner of Education, 1889-90, Vol. I., p. 221. 

f "The Rise of the Dutch Republic," by John Lothrop Motley (New York, 1875), Vol. I., 
p. 84. 

% Ibid., p. 26. Prof. Ludwig Haiisser says : " Besides the universities, there were every- 
where excellent schools, which had more thoroughly imbibed the modern humanistic spirit 
than any others, and that culture extended even among the people. ' There was no country,' 
says a contemporary historian, ' where learning and culture prevailed so widely as among 
us ; even in the Frisian fishermen's huts you might find people who could not only read and 
write, but discussed scriptural interpretations as if they were scholars.' Even if this is an 
exaggeration, it is well known that amidst their material prosperity a real desire for mental 
culture had spread among the lowest classes of the people. Friends and foes bear witness 
that in these countries the conditions of material and mental prosperity were combined to a 
rare extent." — The Period of the Reformatwi , p. 288. See also, "History of the Reforma- 
tion," by George P. Fisher, pp. 285-6. 



14 The History of Compulsory Education 

1574 urging "the servants of the church" to obtain permission 
from the magistrates to appoint schoolmasters in every locality.* 
A more advanced step was taken by Friesland in 1582. There it 
was decreed by the Estates that "the inhabitants of towns and 
villages should within the space of six weeks provide good and 
able Reformed schools-masters, and those who neglected so to do 
would be compelled to accept the instructors appointed for them."f 
In the year following a law was passed in Zealand insisting upon 
education because "it is the foundation of the commonwealth." % 
In 1586 the Synod attempted to make schools universal. Then it 
was ordered ' ' ' that the consistories or assemblies of ministers and 
elders of the church should take care that schools should be every- 
where provided with good schoolmasters to instruct the children of 
all classes of persons in reading, writing, rhetoric, and the liberal 
arts as well as in the doctrines of religion and the catechism of the 
church." || By 1609, the year in which the Puritans took up their 
residence in Leyden, schools for the people had become municipal 
institutions which were paid for as were other expenses of the 
municipalities. § 

In England the state did but little for the cause of universal 
education during this period. The magnificent results achieved 
by the labors of Luther, Melancthon, and other reformers of 
Protestant Germany are in marked contrast with those accom- 
plished by the labors of Erasmus, Colet, and More in England. 
Almost nothing was accomplished during the first half of the six- 
teenth century. At the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII., the 
Oxford reformers had hoped and looked for a reawakening of the 
people through schools established for them. But Henry did but 



* " The Puritan in Holland, England, and America," by Douglas Campbell (New York, 
1892), Vol. II., p. 340. 

f/iid. 

% Boone, p. 3. 

|| Martin, p. 20. 

I Campbell.Vol. II., p. 342. See also article by A. S. Draper in Educational Review (New- 
York), for April, 1892. 



In New England. 15 

little toward establishing schools. During his entire reign of 
thirty-six years, he founded but ten grammar schools. Twenty- 
seven were established by Edward VI., and thirty between Mary 
and Elizabeth.* When the Reformation was considerably ad- 
vanced, Cranmer formulated a scheme for the founding of schools 
of every grade in connection with new cathedrals which he hoped 
would be established. It was a part of his plan to use the revenues 
from the monasteries for this purpose. But the spoils of the 
monasteries went into other hands, and his plans were far from 
realized, f The Reformation and that great intellectual movement 
which accompanied it, both as cause and as effect, gave through 
private charity the facilities for education which the state had 
failed to provide. In all, two hundred and fifty grammar schools 
were established by the state and private donations during the 
period of the Reformation. But these schools did not furnish the 
primary instruction which the people needed. They were higher 
schools and corresponded to the Lateinische Stadt-Schulen estab- 
lished by Duke Christopher in Wurtemberg. Probably these 
schools accomplished the object which the leaders of the movement 
had in view when they established them. They undoubtedly did if 
that object was the furnishing of the means of education beyond 
primary instruction to the middle classes. But if they also had in 
view provisions for the intellectual training of the poor, then in that 
respect they must have failed. What this class needed was 
primary instruction, and the Reformation was far advanced before 
schools giving such instruction were established, and then only by 
private benefice. % 

Such was the origin of modern compulsory education, and such 
the progress that universal education and the principle of compul- 

* " The State in its Relation to Education," by Henry Craik, M.A., LL.D.' (London, 1884). 

t For an account of the destruction of the monasteries see "The Early Tudors," by Rev. 
C. E. Moberly, A.M. (New York, 1889), pp. 193-199- See also " History of the English 
People," by John Richard Green, Vol. II., pp. 158 and 181. 

X Craik, p. 6. 



1 6 History of Compulsory Education in New England. 










sion had made at the end of the sixteenth century. The great 
movement which began with Luther's breaking the ecclesiastical 
shackles which Rome had placed on the Christian world had trans- 
ferred from the church to the state all matters pertaining to the 
instruction of the youth. * That principle maintained so strenu- 
ously by Luther, that the city or state for its own safety must 
establish schools for all the people, and compel the attendance 
of the youth upon them if necessary, had won the battle so far as it 
then had been waged. The next victory for the cause of universal 
education and the principle of compulsion was won on the Ameri- 
can continent by the New England Puritans. 



* Barnard, p. 709. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Principle of Compulsion in New England, 
i 620-1 800. 

The Puritans of New England belonged to that middle class 
in the home country who have made England what it is to-day. 
They were not ignorant men driven to the wilds of America by 
poverty. On the contrary, many of the earliest settlers— the men 
who shaped the destinies of the settlements — were men of ability 
who had been trained in the schools and universities of England. 
No inconsiderable number of them had been large land-holders. 
Others had been prosperous merchants having independent for- 
tunes. With them had come professional men from the Inns of 
Court and the offices of physicians. The ministers of the Gospel 
who accompanied them, with few exceptions, were men of learning 
and of more than ordinary ability. Nearly all of them had been 
educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and had 
been regularly ordained as clergymen in the Church of England, 
but for non-conformity had been deprived of their rectorships. 
They wer-e acquainted with the best theological literature of their 
time, especially that produced by Protestant writers. Indeed, 
their scholastic attainments were of such high order that Prof. John 
Fiske thinks they were able to use both the Old and the New 
Testament in their original tongues.* The clergymen, and not in- 
frequently the settlers themselves, brought with them their private 
collections of books, "which the impulse of the true scholar, to im- 
part to others the knowledge he has gained, afterwards united in 



*" The Beginning of New England " (Boston, 1889), p. 150. 

- 17 



1 8 The History of Compulsory Education 

foundations whence have since arisen the splendid libraries of Yale 
and Harvard." * 

Generally, the settlers were men of lofty character, possessing a 
high order of intelligence. They were men of thrift and industry. 
They were preeminently religious, and had an abiding faith in the 
Calvinistic doctrines they had espoused. Their wives were edu- 
cated women and their children had not been deprived of instruc- 
tion. "Probably," says Victor M. Rice, "no such a body of 
intelligent, religious, moral, and energetic men ever before left 
their native seats to found new colonies, since the Greeks went forth 
to found Syracuse and Marseilles. ' ' f 

Driven from their native land by religious and political persecu- 
tions, it was but natural that they should early provide for the 
perpetuation of those principles and doctrines for which they had 
sacrificed so much. They had given up home, kindred, and native 
land, and come to a region wild and uninhabited save by savages. 
Even here, amidst physical dangers, they regarded ignorance as 
their worst enemy. It was the covert of the papacy and of every 
form of political despotism. And as Luther, a century before, had 
based the safety and strength of a city in an educated citizenship, 
so these early Puritans believed that the only security possible for 
the commonwealth they had founded, and the only means by 
which the political and religious principles which they represented 
could be preserved to posterity was in popular instruction. Ac- 
cordingly, as early as July 20, 1629, the Rev. Francis Higginson, 
an alumnus of Cambridge University, was appointed teacher to the 
congregation at Salem. Four years later the Rev. John Cotton, 
who had also been educated at Cambridge, and who before coming 
to America had acquired a reputation for ability and learning, was 
chosen as teacher to the congregation of the First Church in 
Boston. 

*"The Development of Constitutional Liberty in the English Colonies of America," by 
Eben G. Scott, p. 88. 

■(•"Special Report on the Present State of Education in the United States and Other 
Countries and on Compulsory Education " (Albany, N. V., 1866), p. 66. 



In New England. 19 

In 1635 Boston took a more advanced step and made provision 
for a public school. At a public meeting held April 13 of that 
year it was voted ' ' that our brother Philemon Pormant shall be en- 
treated to become schoolmaster for the teaching and instruction of 
children with us. " * A tract of thirty acres of land was assigned 
to Mr. Pormant, which is now believed to be a part of Brookline.f 
Pormant, however, soon attached himself to the Antinomians and 
went to Exeter with Wheelwright. The Rev. Daniel Maude suc- 
ceeded him as teacher. For his maintenance a subscription of fifty 
pounds was made. Of this sum Winthrop, Vane, and Bellingham 
each contributed ten pounds. \ 

However, as the immigrants increased in numbers and the settle- 
ments pushed further on the wilderness, it became evident that pro- 
visions should be made for the instruction of the youth more 
adequate and definite than that already provided. On June 14, 
1642, the following order was passed by the General Court : " For 
as much as the good education of children is of singular behoof and 
benefit to any commonwealth, and whereas many parents and 
masters are too indulgent and negligent of their duty in that kind, 

"It is ordered that the selectmen of every town in the several 
precincts and quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigilant 
eye over their neighbors, to see first that none of them shall suffer 
so much barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavor 
to teach, by themselves or others, their children and apprentices so 
much learning as may enable them to read perfectly the English 
tongue and to get knowledge of the capital laws, upon penalty of 
twenty shillings for each neglect therein. "|| 

Five years later, November 11, 1647, that well-known law was 



*"The Memorial History of Boston " — essay by Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D., 
entitled "Boston Founded "—by Justin Winsor, Vol. I., p. 123. See also "Free Schools in 
Colonial Times," by William F. Pillsbury in The Public School Journal, Vol. XII., p. 286. 

t The Public School Journal, Vol. XII., p. 286. 

X" History of New England," by John Gorham Palfrey (i860), Vol. II., p. 47. See also 
Winsor's "Memorial History of Boston," Vol. I., p. 123. 
|| Records of Massachusetts Colony, Vol. I. 



20 The History of Compulsory Education 

passed beginning, " It being one chiefe project of yt ould deluder, 
Sathan, to keepe men from the knowledge of ye Scriptures, as in 
an unknown tongue, so in this latter time by persuading from ye 
use of tongues, yt so at least ye true sence and meaning of ye 
original might be clouded by false glosses of saint-seeming deceiv- 
ers, yt learning may not be buried in ye graves of o r fathers in 
ye church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting o r endeavors."* 

Then follows the order that every town numbering fifty house- 
holders shall appoint one of the community to teach the children to 
read and write. It was further ordered that whenever a town 
should increase to one hundred house-holders a grammar school 
should be established to fit the youth for the university. The 
failure of any town to comply with the regulations of this statute 
was to be punished by a fine of five shillings to be paid to the 
nearest school until the order was obeyed, f 

The grade of the grammar schools instituted by this statute is 
revealed to some extent in the requirements, of admission to 
Harvard College at that time. As stated in the "laws, liberties, 
and orders of Harvard College," then in force, candidates for 
admission were required to give evidence of ability ' ' to read 
Tully, or such like classical author extempore," to speak and write 
Latin in both prose and verse, and to decline the Greek paradigms 
of nouns and verbs. % 

Some of the towns failed to meet these requirements. To secure 
the establishment of grammar schools in all towns having one 
hundred house-holders, the General Court in May, 1671, doubled 

*Jbid., Vol. II., p. 203. 

t In these statutes of 1642 and 1647, we have the beginnings of the Massachusetts school 
system. This system was sustained for nearly two hundred years by the people with little or 
no aid from the state. It was not until 1834 that a statute was passed providing for a state 
school fund. " The fund was to consist of all money in the treasury derived from the sale of 
lands in the state of Maine, and from the claims of the state on the United States for military 
services, and half of all money thereafter to be received from the sale of Maine lands, the 
fund not to exceed a million dollars." — The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School 
System, by George H. Martin (Boston, 1894), p. 154. 

% Rice's Report, p. 67. 



In New England. 21 

the penalty for failure to comply with the statutes.* Twelve 
years later an addition was made to the law requiring all towns of 
five hundred families or more to establish and maintain two gram- 
mar schools and two writing schools, f 

Before the union with Massachusetts colony in 1691, very little 
had been done by Plymouth colony in the way of establishing 
schools. Soon after the Massachusetts statute of 1647 was passed, 
similar provisions were made by Plymouth. This- law seems to 
have been a dead letter, for as late as June, 1674, there was but 
one public school in the colony. This was at Plymouth.^ In 
1663 an order was passed by the General Court recommending 
the several townships of the colony to take steps toward the 
organization of schools. || The recommendation availed little, if 
anything. Ten years later the General Court passed a more 
effective order. It was then ordered that the thirty-three pounds a 
year which were necessary to defray the expenses of the free 
schools of the colony should be paid from the profits of the fishing 
at the cape. But this order was provisional in its nature. It was 
to continue in force only as long as it was necessary for the court 
to learn "the minds of the freemen concerning it."§ The order 
met with the approval of "Jp& freemen," and at the meeting of the 
court in the next year it was confirmed. ^[ 

At the meeting of the court in November, 1677, provisions were 
made for the establishment of grammar schools. Every town 
having fifty families or more was to establish a grammar school ; 
and all towns of seventy or more families not having such schools 



♦Colonial Records of Massachusetts, Vol. IV., Part II., p. 486. See also article entitled 
" Early Legislation in Massachusetts," North American Review, Vol. XLVIL, p. 279. 

f Colonial Records of Massachusetts, Vol. V., p. 414. 

J "An Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth," by Francis Baylies (Boston, 
1866), Vol. I., Part II., p. 93. 

I Records of Plymouth Colony, 1623-1682, p. 211. 
§ Ibid., p. 233. 
If Ibid., p. 237. 



22 The History of Compulsory Education 

were required to pay the next town that had complied with the 
provisions of the statute the sum of five pounds.* 

When the union was effected the laws of Massachusetts colony 
superseded those of Plymouth. This was brought about by a 
province law passed in 1692 which reenacted all of the colonial 
statutes of Massachusetts excepting that of 1683. This province 
law continued in force without change till 1702, when it was 
modified by a statute fixing the penalty for failure to establish a 
grammar school at twenty pounds per annum. The penalty was 
again increased in 17 18. Upon towns of one hundred and fifty 
families it was raised to thirty pounds. It was increased ten 
pounds for towns of two hundred families ; and raised in the same 
proportion for towns of two hundred and fifty and three hundred 
families, f 

With some slight modifications these laws continued in force till 
1780. In the constitution adopted in that year, the legislature was 
given authority to require the people of the state to make pro- 
visions for the education of the youth, and to compel their attend- 
ance upon the schools thus provided.'! The authority thus 
granted was exercised by the legislature in 1789. On the 20th of 
June that year, an act was passed "for the instruction of youth, 
and for the promotion of good education." The principle under- 
lying this law was the same as that which characterized the 
colonial laws from the very first. The establishment of schools 
was made compulsory. All towns of fifty families or house- 
holders, and less than one hundred, were required to support one 
or more schoolmasters to teach the English language six months 
in each year. Failure to comply with this provision was punishable 
by a fine of ten pounds. If a school of the character specified in 
the statute had been kept for a less time than six months, then a 
proportionable part of the fine was assessed for. such time as the 

* Ibid., pp. 246, 247. 

t North American Rcvieiv, Vol. XLVII., p. 280. 

% The Constitution of Massachusetts, 1780, Art. III. 



In New England. 23 

•school was not in session. Towns of one hundred families and 
upwards were required to keep such a school during the entire 
year, under penalty of a fine of twenty pounds. As in the case of 
towns of fifty families, if the school had been kept part of the year, 
a proportionable part of the fine was assessed for the time the 
school was not in session, and not the entire sum. Towns of one 
hundred and fifty families were also required to keep such a school 
■during the entire year. But the penalty was again increased. 
For keeping no school at all, it was thirty pounds ; and a propor- 
tionable part of this for the time the school was not in session, if a 
school had been kept for a part of the year only. A penalty of 
thirty pounds, and proportionably a sum for less time than a year, 
was fixed for the failure of towns and districts having two hundred 
families and upwards to establish grammar schools.* 

The laws passed by Connecticut during this period were much 
like those of Massachusetts. The first code of laws adopted here 
was in 1650. In this code was a provision for obligatory education 
which was almost a literal transcript of the Massachusetts statute of 
1642.1 Five years later a code was adopted by New Haven 
colony containing similar provisions. Both of these colonies, how- 
ever, had schools prior to the dates when these codes were adopted. 
In Hartford a school was kept as early as 1637 or 1638 by John 
Higginson, who was afterward minister at Saybrook and at Salem. 
Higginson was succeeded by a man of the name of Collins, a son- 
in-law of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. J In April, 1643, at a general 
town meeting it was voted that Mr. Andrews should teach the 
school for one year. His salary was fixed at sixteen pounds, which 
the town guaranteed. || In February of 1648 it was agreed 

* The Laws of the Massachusetts Commonwealth from November 28, 17S0, to February 28, 
1807 (Boston, 1807), Vol. I., p. 469. 

f The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut Prior to the Union with New Haven, 
p. 520. 

\ Palfrey, Vol. II., p. 48. See also Cotton Mather's " Magnalia," Bk. III., Chap. I., § 15. 

I " History of Common Schools in Connecticut," by Henry Barnard, LL. D., in Barnard's 
Journal of Education, Vol. IV. (1858), p. 658. See also " A Brief History of Public Education 
in Connecticut," in the Report of the Connecticut Board of Education for 1876, p. 92. 



24 The History of Compulsory Education 

to appropriate forty pounds for the erection of a schoolhouse. 

The example of Hartford in making provisions for the education 
of the youth was followed by other Connecticut towns. Their 
method of supporting the schools they established was the same as 
in Hartford. In Wethersfield, it was ordered on March 12, 1658, 
that Mr. Thomas Lord should be employed as schoolmaster at 
a salary of twenty-five pounds a year. Mr. Lord was also voted 
the use of a house and lot, and ' ' the use of the meadow as 
formerly. ' ' * 

New Haven colony was settled in 1638. The next year mention 
is made of a school in the records which seems to indicate the 
existence of a school at this early date.f In 1641 it was ordered 
that " a free schoole shall be sett up in this towne." The yearly 
allowance to be appropriated by the town for this purpose was 
to be determined by a committee consisting of the pastor, Rev. 
John Davenport, and the magistrates of the town. \ It was agreed 
by the committee that this sum should be twenty pounds. But 
that not proving sufficient for a competent maintenance, in August 
of 1664 it was raised to thirty pounds. || Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, to 
whom, with Elijah Corlet, Cotton Mather gave the praise of having 
saved New England from barbarism, was the first teacher. § Later 
Cheever was established as schoolmaster at Ipswich and Charles- 
town, Massachusetts. In 167 1 he went to Boston and took charge 
of the Latin school there. 

These provisions of New Haven colony remained in force until 
1665, when the colony was united with Connecticut. Then they 
were superseded by the Connecticut laws. These continued in 
force, without change, until 1671. In that year a revision of the 



*" History of Common Schools in Connecticut," by Henry Barnard, LL. D., in Barnard's 
Journal of Education, Vol. IV. (1858), p. 659. 

t Ibid., p. 66r. 

I Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 62. See also 
Palfrey, Vol. II., p. 47. 

|| Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649, p. 210. 

\Ibid., p. 210. Palfrey, Vol. II., p. 47. 



In New England. 25 

laws was begun which was completed and approved the next year. 
The new code retained the obligatory provision of 1650. In addi- 
tion, there was an order for the establishment of a grammar school 
in every county. To accomplish the purpose of this order, the 
court granted six hundred acres of land to each of the four 
counties.* The efficiency of these laws was greatly increased 
in 1677. Then the General Court ordered that every town should 
forfeit five pounds for the support of the Latin school in that 
county, if it failed to keep a school above three months in a year.f 
At nearly the same time, the failure of any county town to establish 
a Latin or grammar school was made punishable by a fine of 
ten pounds. This fine was to be paid annually by the county town 
until it should establish such a school, to the next town in the 
county. % In 1690 the court ordered the establishment of two free 
grammar schools, one at Hartford and the other at New Haven. || 

A second revision of the laws took place in 1700, and two years 
later was published. This revision retained the ' ' Act for Edu- 
cating Children" as it was originally in the code of 1650. But it 
contained two new and important features. A tax of ' ' forty 
shillings on every thousand pounds of the list of estates ' ' was to 
be collected in every town with the annual tax of the colony to 
be paid proportionably to those towns only that kept their schools 
according to the law. The other feature referred to was a pro- 
vision requiring every town having seventy or more families to 
keep their school eleven months in the year. All towns having 
less than seventy families were to keep their school not less than 
six months. 

In 17 15 an act was passed which was designed to effect a more 
faithful execution of the "Act for Educating Children." In May, 



* Colonial Records, 1665 to 1678, p. 176. See also Annual Report of the Board of Education. 
of the State of Connecticut, 1872, p. 108. 
t Colonial Records, 1665 to 1678, p. 307. 
\Ibid., p. 312. 
|| Colonial Records of Connecticut, 1689 to 1706, p. 31. 



26 The History of Compulsory Education 

17 17, the law of 1700 requiring- towns having seventy or more 
families to keep their school eleven months in the year, and towns 
with a less number of families to keep theirs six, was extended to 
parishes or societies having that number.* 

In October, 1742, the General Court passed an act for a better 
regulation of the schools. In the same year a committee con- 
sisting of Roger Wolcott, Jonathan Trumbull, Thomas Fitch, and 
John Bulkley, was appointed to make a revision of the laws. This 
revision was not published until 1750. With a slight alteration, 
the "Act for Educating Children" as it was originally in 1650 was 
retained. Another revision was made in 1783 by Roger Sherman 
and Richard Law, who were appointed in May of that year.f 
After a careful consideration at an adjourned session of the General 
Court, in January, 1784, this revision was accepted and ordered to 
be published. The obligatory provisions of this revision remained 
the same as in 1750. % 

In Rhode Island but little was done during this period toward 
the establishment of schools for the people. Here the idea pre- 
vailed, as it always has in England until very recently, that public 
elementary schools are charitable institutions. || The same idea 
prevailed in the South and to some extent in Pennsylvania. 

It was a theory in Rhode Island that the state could not safely 
interfere in elementary instruction except in instances where the 
people were unable to provide the necessary means for it. But the 
poorer people did not always indorse the establishment of schools 
under this provision. When in 1768 an effort was made to estab- 
lish a public school system supported by a tax, it was defeated by 
the opposition of this class. And again at the close of the eigh- 
teenth century, when John Howland labored to establish a system 



* " History of Common Schools in Connecticut," in Barnard's Journal of Education, Vol. 
IV., p. 698. 
t Ibid. , p. 701. 
X /did., p. 703. 
|| " Free School System of the United States," by Francis Adams, p. 52. 



In New England. 27 

of free schools for the state, it was from this class that the chief 
objections came. 

Another reason for the failure of Rhode Island to make as 
ample provisions for universal education as did Massachusetts and 
Connecticut was probably because the colony was small, and 
the settlements too feeble to secure efficient organization. In 
1680 the population did not exceed 7,000. In 1700 it was less 
than ten thousand ; while in 1730, it was only 17,935.* Besides 
these reasons, there is a third that may help to explain the feeble 
assistance the colony gave to the cause of education. In Massa- 
chusetts, a most potent force in building up and sustaining a 
system of schools was the clergy. In Rhode Island, there was a 
most vigorous opposition to clerical influence, and ' ' against the 
traditional institutions of Massachusetts and Connecticut, "f 

Schools, however, were not wholly wanting. Newport estab- 
lished one in 1640, and Robert Lenthal was made teacher. 
Lenthal could not have remained in this office but two years at 
most. J It is stated in the records of the colony that "at the 
General Court of elections held on the 16th and 17th of March at 
Newport, 1642, it was ordered that Mr. Lenthal, being gone for 
England, is suspended his vote in elections." || 

In May, 1663, provisions were made for the establishment of a 
school in Providence. The proprietors passed an order agreeing 
that ' ' one hundred acres of upland and six acres of meadow 
(or lowland to the quantity of eight acres in lieu of meadow) shall 
be laid out within the bounds of this town of Providence ; which 
land shall be reserved for the maintenance of a school in this town ; 



* Article on "Rhode Island" in "The Cyclopaedia of Education," by Henry Kiddle and 
Alexander J. Schem (New York and London, 1877), p. 734. 

+ Ibid. 

% " The Cyclopaedia of Education," by Kiddle and Schem, cites Callender's "Historical 
Discourse" (published in 1738) as authority for the statement that " an appropriation of one 
hundred acres of land was made for the permanent support of schools," at the time Lenthal 
was employed as teacher. I have been unable to find any evidence of such a grant in the 
records. However, part of the early records have disappeared. 

|| Rhode Island Records, 1636-63, Vol. I., p. 119. 



28 The History of Compulsory Education 

and that after the said land is laid and the bounds there set, it 
shall be recorded in our town records, according unto the bounds 
fixed, and shall be called by the name of the school lands of 
Providence."* In January, 1696, a grant of land was made to 
John Dexter, William Hopkins, and others for the erection of a 
schoolhouse.f 

In 1767 the citizens voted to build three schoolhouses for 
primary instruction and one for more advanced pupils. These 
schools were to be under the control of the school committee, and 
the cost for their support to be defrayed out of the town treasury. 

In 1768 a committee appointed for that purpose reported a plan 
for the organization of the schools under state control. The 
report was made through Gov. Jabez Bowen. It offered to every 
inhabitant of the town, whether free or not, equal privileges in the 
school. However, the plan was defeated by the poorer ^people of 
the town. % 

In Bristol, a grant of land was made in 1680, "for the encour- 
agement and use of an able orthodox minister, and for the use and 
encouragement of an able schoolmaster in the town."| Other 
orders were passed by the town in 1682 and 1684. The order of 
1682 fixed the teacher's salary at twenty-four pounds a year. 
That of 1684 voted this sum "to Mr. Cobbitt for officiating in the 
place of a schoolmaster. ' ' 

These were the leading attempts to establish a system of schools 
prior to the Revolution. In none of the acts passed is there an 
obligatory provision either for the establishment of schools or the 
attendance of the children upon them. But in the year 1800, 
a new era begins in the history of education in Rhode Island. In 
1799 John Howland drew up a petition to the General Assembly 

* " Annals of the Town of Providence, from its First Settlement to the Organization of the 
City Government, in June, 1832," by William R. Staples (Providence, 1843), p. 492. 
f Ibid. , p. 494. 

I " The < '■ 1 li ipaedia of Education," by Kiddle and Schem. 

II Ibid. 



In New England. 29 

asking that a free school system be established in the state. This 
petition was presented to the Assembly at the February session of 
this year by the ' ' Providence Association of Mechanics and Manu- 
facturers." It was referred to a committee which reported in June 
by offering a bill having in view the establishment of such a system 
of schools as the petition asked. In October the bill passed the 
House of Representatives after vigorous opposition by many. It 
was referred to the Senate, which deferred action until the February 
session of the next year. Then the bill was passed and became 
a law. But it never had a fair trial. The violent opposition with 
which it had been met in the House of Representatives led to 
measures for its repeal. These were successful. The law soon be- 
came unpopular and in February of 1803 it was repealed.* It was 
not until the January session of 1828 that another act establishing 
public schools was passed, f Then the present school system 
was founded. 

Of the other New England States but little is to be said. From 
1 64 1 till 1693 New Hampshire was a part of Massachusetts. After 
it became an independent province, its laws pertaining to education 
were the same in spirit as those of Massachusetts. Vermont was 
not permanently settled until 1724.^ Prior to the Revolution no at- 
tempt was made to establish a school system. And, as in Rhode 
Island, the principle of compulsion was wholly wanting. 



The history of modern compulsory education destroys that 
objection to obligatory laws, so frequently urged in some parts 
of the United States of late, that they are monarchical in their 
origin and history. Common as the idea is that obligatory laws 
originated in Prussia, it is wholly erroneous. Nearly two centuries 
had elapsed from Luther's famous address in 1524, before Fred- 

* "Annals of the Town of Providence," etc., by William R. Staples, pp. 505-508. 
t Ibid., p. 511. 



30 The History of Compulsory Education 

erick William I. issued those mandatory orders that developed into 
compulsory attendance laws. These orders were issued October 
24, 17 1 3 ; and nearly four years later, September 28, 1717, the 
king issued the first law. Then such laws had been tried by 
the state of Geneva, the Estates of Navarre, and the duchy of 
Wiirtemberg. Such a law had been in successful operation in 
Massachusetts for seventy-five years, and in Connecticut for nearly 
the same time. 

Compulsory education, as understood in modern times, had 
its origin in the desire for universal education which accompanied 
the Reformation. The principle that the safety and the strength of 
a city lie in an educated and a moral citizenship, and that other 
principle, which is its sequence, that the state has not only the right 
to establish schools, but that it is its duty to do so, and, if need be, 
to compel the attendance of its youth upon them, are both 
Lutheran in their origin. They constituted the fundamental doc- 
trine of the great reformer's famous address in 1524. Through 
such propagandists as the "gentle Melancthon," Myconius, and 
Justus Jonas, with the aid of such wise rulers as John the Constant 
and Duke Christopher of Wiirtemberg, they became by the close 
of the sixteenth century an essential part of the educational creed of 
Protestant Germany. It is true they were not universal in their 
application during this era, and that later there were periods of 
retrogression. 

When the laws of Frederick William I. were given, a new era 
began. The principle of the right of the state to compel the 
attendance of its youth upon the schools it had established was 
asserted with new vigor. It was the same principle for which 
Luther had contended ; the same principle which determined the 
character of the system established by Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut. The great difference between the Massachusetts statutes 
of 1642 and 1647, and that of Connecticut of 1650, when com- 
pared with the laws of Frederick William with reference to this 
principle, is merely one of degree. New England emphasized it 



In New England. 31 

earlier and more strongly than Prussia. But it is in the Prussian 
law. By this law parents, especially those in the rural districts, 
are required to send their children to school from their fifth to the 
twelfth year. They are to attend school daily in winter, and in 
summer, if they are needed for work, at least once or twice a week. 
The fee fixed for their schooling was two threepence for each 
child per week. If the parents were too poor to pay this sum, 
then it was to be paid from the community's fund.* But Fred- 
erick William's labors in behalf of the education of his people did 
not cease with these laws of 1717. He was a great school builder. 
In Preussen and Lithuania, by the end of his reign, he had estab- 
lished more than eleven hundred village schools (Dorfschuleii) for 
the people, f 

His example was followed by his illustrious son. At three 
different times during the first years of his reign, Frederick II. 
issued regulations concerning the support of schools. J 

After the Peace of Paris, February 10, 1763, Frederick gave a 
"General School Regulation for the Whole Monarchy." || The 
tenth section of this "Regulation" requires that parents and 
guardians who have children to educate, and who do not send them 
to school as the ordinance requires, "shall still be obliged to pay 
the common school fee for the term." Guardians were not 
permitted to pay this sum from money belonging to their wards. 



* "Auf eine Anregung des .reformierten Kirchendirectoriums erliesz der Konig 1717 eine 
' generelle Verordnung.' Von alien Consistorien und kirchlichen Behorden ' in alien konig- 
lichen Landern,' dasz die Altern, namentlich auch auf dem platten Lande, bei nachdriick- 
licher Strafe gehalten sein sollten, ihre Kinder vom fiinften bis zum zwolften Jahre im Winter 
taglich, und im Sommer, wenn sie bei der Wirthschaft benothigt, zum wenigsten ein oder- 
zweimal die Woche zur Schule zu sehicken ; sie sollen fur jedes Kind in der Woche zwei 
Dreier zahlen, und wenn sie zu arm sind, sollen die zwei Dreier, ' aus jedes Orts Almozen ' 
bezahit werden."— Geschichte der Preuszischen Politik, von Joh. Gust. Droysen {Leipzig, 
1869), Vierter Theil, Dritte Abtheiliing, Seite 418. 

t Ibid., Seite 420 : " History of Prussia to the Accession of Frederick the Great, 1134-1740,"" 
by Herbert Tuttle (Boston and New York, 1883), p. 471. 

\ These orders were issued October 13, 1740, October 29, 1741, and January 2, 1743. 

|| This "Regulation" was given August 12, 1763. Barnard's "Systems, Institutions, and 
Statistics of Public Instruction," pp. 861-868. 



2,2 History of Compulsory Education in New England. 

Besides this, the law fixes another penalty for its violation. "If, 
after earnest exhortation of the ministers, they do not send their 
children regularly to school, then the magistrates of the town, in 
the last resort, shall direct execution against them. It is made the 
duty of the school-visitors to impose on such parents as have not 
made their children attend school regularly, a fine of sixteen 
groschen, to be paid into the school-treasury." On November 3, 
1765, he gave "Regulations for Catholic Schools in Silesia."* 
These contained compulsory features analogous to those given in 
the Regulations of 1763. 

Thus, at the close of the eighteenth century schools for the 
people were demanded by monarchical Prussia and democratic New 
England. The educational principles that characterized Luther's 
writings had become dominant. There was no questioning the 
right of the state to establish schools. It was acknowledged that 
the state had the right to compel the attendance of its youth upon 
them. New England had asserted these principles and demon- 
strated their truth by legal enactments earlier than Prussia. But 
when Frederick William I. came to the throne, through him 
and the greater Frederick, Prussia demonstrated their truth as 
completely, and asserted them with as much vigor, as ever had been 
done elsewhere in the Protestant world. 



* Ibid., pp. S69-877. 



CHAPTER III. 

Indirect Compulsion — The Factory Laws of Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut. 

The two essential elements in every system of universal educa- 
tion are the establishment of schools for all the people irrespective 
of class, and the education of the youth in these schools, or by 
other means, whether brought about by public opinion or by 
obligatory laws. This was fully comprehended by the New Eng- 
land Puritans, and the first two acts relating to education that the 
General Court of Massachusetts passed created such a system. 
The same thing was done in Connecticut when the code of 1650 be- 
came the law of that commonwealth. From the time they were 
established until the beginning of the nineteenth century the funda- 
mental principles of these systems remained the same. Such laws 
as were passed during this period had for their purpose either the 
increase of educational advantages, or the making of the attend- 
ance laws more stringent. The very first law passed by Connecti- 
cut in the present century is but a reiteration of the principle found 
in the first code. This statute was enacted in 1805, and required 
all parents to see that ' ' their children are able to read the English 
tongue well and know the laws against capital offences." The 
only difference between this law and the code is that the penalty 
for neglect to meet these requirements is fixed at $3.34 ; whereas 
formerly it was twenty shillings.* 

In the main, these early laws in both commonwealths were faith- 
fully administered. They expressed the sentiment of a majority of 
the people, and in the high intelligence that has characterized 



* The Public Statutes of Connecticut (Hartford, 1808), p. 123. 

33 



34 The History of Compulsory Education 

the people from the earliest times there is sufficient evidence of 
their utility. 

The conditions under which these systems were established were 
most favorable to their successful administration. The people were 
homogeneous and in the main well-to-do. They were intelligent 
and industrious. Besides, the Protestant creed which they had ac- 
cepted had from the very first proclaimed itself the friend of such 
systems as had been established here. More than this, the prin- 
ciple of universal education was the basal stone on which Protes- 
tantism had been reared. This accounts for the unanimity of 
thought relative to these systems, and the united action which 
was given to their support. 

But the simple social arrangement which characterized New 
England for more than one hundred and fifty years was completely 
changed during the latter part of the eighteenth century. A new 
industrial system then began. In England, the inventions of Ark- 
wright, Hargreaves, Crompton, and Watt had revolutionized 
the manufacture of textile fabrics. The old methods were super- 
seded by organized manufacturing establishments. The cottage 
of the weaver could no longer be his factory. But he was com- 
pelled, in order to support himself and his family, to move to 
the nearest town and engage in the employ of some capitalist. 
Important and valuable as was this change to the economic 
development of England, it was attended with some evil conse- 
quences. It was soon found that the lighter portions of the 
work could be done by very young children. Many children 
of the poorest families were sent from the south of England by the 
poor-law overseers to be apprenticed in the manufacturing districts 
of the north. In these communities they were treated hardly better 
than slaves. They were worked night and day, and "it is even 
said that one gang, when exhausted, went to rest in the beds still 
warm of those coming on to work." * Besides this, they were illy 
fed and poorly clothed. 

* " The State in its Relation to Labor," by W. Stanley Jevons (London), p. 53. 



In New E7igland. 35 

This overworking and underfeeding of these pauper children 
soon led to an epidemic of disease. The attention of the public 
was first directed to the evils in 1796, through the labors of 
Doctors Aiken and Percival, who had been appointed to inves- 
tigate them.* These gentlemen so strongly emphasized the evils 
of the factory system so far as it related to the employment of 
child labor that Sir Robert Peel introduced in Parliament, in 1802, 
a bill to remedy these evils. This bill became a law and was 
known as the " Health and Morals Act." Besides certain sanitary 
provisions relating to the factories, it required the master to 
furnish a new suit of clothes to each apprentice yearly ; the hours 
of labor were fixed at twelve hours daily, and night work with 
certain exceptions was entirely forbidden ; and finally, all appren- 
tices were to be instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, f 

Thus it is seen that in a little more than a decade of years after 
the establishment of the factory system in England evils had 
followed it which demanded legislation for their eradication. In 
New England there was the same tendency to establish factories. 
This tendency differed from that in England only in degree. 
There was less capital and less skilled labor to be employed than 
in England ; but nevertheless the same spirit was manifested. In 
1785 Boston formed an "Association of Tradesmen and Me- 
chanics. ' ' % Four years later Providence founded its ' ' Association 
of Mechanics and Manufacturers. "|| This latter organization, 
which still exists, had for its purpose the ' ' promoting of industry, 
and giving just encouragement to ingenuity. ' ' 

Another evidence that the tendency to establish factories pre- 
vailed in New England is found in the establishment of a large 
factory in Boston, in 1788 or 1789, for the manufacture of linen 



* Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Third Series, Vol. XVII., p. 85. 
t Jevons, p. 54. 

{"Economic and Social History of New England, 1 620-1 789 " (Boston), by William B. 
Weeden, Vol. II., p. 847. 
|| Ibid., p. 850. 



36 The History of Compulsory EdiicatiQn 

canvas. Besides this, Weeden says that "from 1785 to 1791 
cotton was being introduced into the Southern States from the 
West Indian seed, to meet the new demand for northern manu- 
facturers as well as for exportation."* But the real development 
of the manufacture of textile fabrics in New England began 
under the Embargo Act of 1807. At the close of that year, there 
were but fifteen cotton mills in the United States. Two years 
later eighty-seven more such mills had been built. And in 18 10, 
when Gallatin made his report on American manufacturers, he 
roughly estimated the total annual value of all manufactured prod- 
ucts, at that time, at $1 20, 000, 000. f 

This economic development had its disadvantages. It is true 
that in both Massachusetts and Connecticut where child labor was 
used, the children were not so cruelly treated as in England before 
the "Health and Morals Act" was passed. They never were 
slaves in any sense. But the practice of binding out children was 
accompanied by deprivation of educational privileges. This evil 
became so great in Connecticut that by 18 13 the old laws pertain- 
ing to education were practically a dead letter in some localities. 

The General Assembly took hold of the matter, and in 1813 
enacted a law to eradicate this evil. By the provisions of this act, 
the proprietors of all manufacturing establishments were required 
to see that all the children of their employ were taught reading, 
writing, and arithmetic. Furthermore, they were to give attention 
to the children's morals. To secure obedience to this law, the 
selectmen of each town were constituted a board of visitors to 
ascertain annually whether or not these provisions were obeyed. 
This board was also required to report all violations to the next 
county court.']; 

When the statutes were revised in 1821, the provisions of this 



* Ibid., p. 851. 

t " History of the United States of America Under the Constitution," by James Schouler 
(Washington, D. C, 1889), Vol. II., p. 298. 
X Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 486. 



In New England. 37 

law were reenacted.* It remained on the statute books until 1842, 
but it never realized the expectations of its friends. It had two 
weaknesses that prevented its meeting with the success that was 
hoped for it. It contained no provision whatever for school 
instruction, but merely specified that certain subjects should be 
taught the children. As enacted, the law left to the masters the 
character of the training to be given ; and this is nearly always the 
most important element in elementary education. The second 
weakness consisted in the want of a provision requiring towns 
under penalty to organize the board of visitors. Dr. Henry 
Barnard said of this statute in 1840: "It is a dead letter in 
nearly if not every town in the state. I know not of a single 
instance where the board of visitation authorized by the act has 
been organized, "f \ 

In 1842 a new act was passed. This provided that no child 
under fifteen should be employed in any manufacturing establish- 
ment, or in any other business, until he has attended ' ' some public 
or private day school where instruction is given by a teacher quali- 
fied to instruct in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, 
geography, and arithmetic, at least three months of the twelve 
months next preceding any and every year in which* 1 such child 
shall be so employed.'" The penalty fixed for violations was a fine 
of twenty-five dollars to be paid into the treasury of the state. 
The only evidence authorized by the act that the child seeking em- 
ployment had fulfilled the conditions prescribed was a certificate 
signed and sworn to by his teacher. Another provision fixed the 
hours of labor for all children under fourteen years of age at ten. 
Any violation of this was made punishable by a fine of seven dollars 
for each offence. % 

This law was a marked improvement over that of 18 13, and if it 

* Public Statute Laws of the State of Connecticut as Revised and Enacted by the General 

Assembly in May, 1821 (Hartford, 1821), p. 320. 
t Quoted from the Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 487- 
J Public Acts Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, May Session, 

1842 (Hartford, 1842), pp. 40 and 41. 



38 The History of Compulsory Education 

had had the support of public opinion, probably it would have 
destroyed the evil at which it was aimed. But it did not have that 
support, and soon it practically became a dead letter. State 
Superintendent Daniel C. Gilman, in his report for 1866, says of it: 
"In many cases the proprietors or agents of manufacturing estab- 
lishments would willingly see the provisions of the statute sustained, 
but they are well aware that the law is not obeyed through the 
state, and are apprehensive that they shall lose both parents 
and children as operatives if they refuse the latter work."* 

An important amendment was made to the laws relating to child 
labor in 1855. Before that date no age limit had been prescribed 
for children who worked in factories. In this year the General 
Assembly passed an act requiring a child to be at least nine years of 
age before taking service in such establishments. In the next year 
this requirement was modified by fixing the age at ten years before 
he could be so employed, f 

The General Assembly in 1867 passed an act to supersede the 
law of 1842. This fixed the penalty for employing children more 
than ten hours a day, or fifty-eight hours per week, at fifty dollars. 
One half of this was to go to the person who had made the 
complaint aftd had successfully prosecuted the case. The other 
half was to go to the town treasury.']: 

The defects of the act of 1842 were but partially remedied 
by these various acts. In 1869 they brought about a new employ- 

* Connecticut School Report, 1866, pp. 82-83; quoted here from the Report of the Com- 
missioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 487. 

t Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of Connecticut for the 
year ending November 30, 1887 (Hartford, 1887), p. 156. 

The English Parliament, in 1819, had fixed nine years and upwards as the age at which 
children could be admitted to labor in cotton mills. The same provision was made in the Al- 
thorp Act of 1833. There the distinction was made which has ever since been maintained 
between " children admitted to work of the ages nine to thirteen," and " young persons " of 
ages from thirteen to eighteen years. Jevons' "The State in its Relation to Labor," p. 55. 
Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Third Series, Vol. XVII., p. S5 et seg., gives a history of 
the legislation on this subject from 1S02 till 1S33. See also article in Lalor's " Cyclopaedia," 
entitled " Factory Laws," by Prof. E. J.James, Vol. II. 

% Public Acts Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut, 1866 to 1871 
Inclusive (Hartford, 1871), p. 119. 



In New England. 39 

■ment act which was by far the most important piece of legislation 
yet enacted in this state relative to child labor. The law of 1842 
had forbidden the employment of children under fifteen years of 
.age who had not had three months' schooling the preceding year. 
The law of 1869 changed this limit to fourteen. Just why this 
change was made is not evident, but it may have been a concession 
to employers and parents to make the other exactions seem less 
stringent. The remainder of the act is much more exacting and 
binding than that of 1842. By the latter act only manufacturers, 
agents, and superintendents could be prosecuted ; under the new 
act all employers were liable to prosecution. The penalty .was 
increased from twenty to one hundred dollars. It again improved 
■on the act of 1842, which required boards of visitors to examine 
into the execution of the law and report violations of it, when it re- 
quired state attorneys and grand juries to cooperate with these. 
But more important than this was that provision that authorized 
the State Board of Education to appoint one of its number or some 
other suitable person as agent to enforce the law.* This agent was 
to be at all times under the control of the State Board of Education. 
The act of 1842 had left the execution of the law to local boards, 
which at best meant that the law would be only partially enforced. 
The most serious objection that might be urged against the act 
of 1869 was destroyed by an act passed in 1871. The act of 1869 
took the children out of the factories, or kept them out if they had 
not yet taken employment. But it did not send them to school ; 
this was the purpose of the new act. It provided that all parents or 
guardians of children who had been employed in factories or other 
business and had been temporarily discharged for the purpose 
of sending them to" school should see that they were put into 
school. The penalty fixed for non-compliance with this provision 
was five dollars for each and every week not exceeding thirteen 
in any one year.f This law, together with the one of 1869, 

* Ibid., p-333- 
i Ibid., p. 594. 



40 The History of Compulsory Education 

made a complete system of obligatory education so far as the 
factory children were concerned. There was considerable opposi- 
tion to it from parents who were factory operatives.* There 
was much justice in the objection they urged against it. This 
objection was one of the factors which brought about the act 
of 1872 establishing compulsory education throughout the state 
irrespective of class. 

Since 1871 some important modifications have been made in the 
laws affecting factory children and those employed in other work. 
As the law now stands no child under thirteen years can be 
employed in any "mechanical, mercantile, or manufacturing es- 
tablishment." The penalty fixed for violation of this provision by 
employers or agents is a fine not exceeding sixty dollars ; and each 
week of such illegal employment is to constitute a distinct offence. 
The same penalty is fixed for false certification of the age of 
any child by his parent or guardian. The act further provides 
that ' ' no child under fourteen years of age, who has resided in 
the United States nine months, shall be employed to labor, unless 
such child shall have attended a day school in which instruction has 
been regularly and thoroughly given in the branches of education 
required in the public schools during at least twelve weeks, or sixty 
full school days of the twelve months next preceding any year 
in which such child shall be so employed, nor unless six weeks 
at least of this attendance have been consecutive. Any person who 
shall employ a child contrary to the provisions of this section shall 
be fined not more than sixty dollars." f 

Legislation on this subject did not begin so soon in Massachu- 
setts as in Connecticut. The first act passed in this state was in 

* Dr. B. G. Northrop, who was State Superintendent at the time this statute was passed,, 
said of it : " The only objection made to this law, within my knowledge, is its limitation 
to the parents and guardians of those children who are hired out. They ask, ' While we are 
justly required to send our children to school, why are the parents of children unemployed, it 
may be the idle and vicious, excused ? ' This has the look of class legislation. Make this 
law impartial and universal in its obligation, and you remove the only real objection as yet 
urged against it." — Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-S9, Vol. I., p. 487. 

t Ibid., p. 488. 



In New England. 4 1 

1836. The immigration of a manufacturing and foreign population 
had destroyed the former homogeneity of the people. Where 
formerly there had been unanimity of thought and action in matters 
pertaining to education, there were now many differing opinions. 
Society was divided into sects and classes, not all of which 
espoused the cause of popular education. Some indeed antago- 
nized such a system. The system which had answered the needs of 
this commonwealth almost from the day when it was first settled 
began to lose its vitality. It was seemingly unable to deal with 
the problem. In 1834, alarmed at the condition which confronted 
it, the state made provision for a public school fund, and two 
years later passed the act to which reference has been made. 
This act was approved by the governor April 16, 1836, but it did 
not go into effect until April 1, 1837. It provided that no child 
under fifteen years should be employed in any manufacturing 
establishment unless he had attended "some public or private day 
school kept by some qualified teacher at least three months of the 
twelve immediately preceding the year in which he was employed. 
Employers were made liable to a fine of fifty dollars, which was 
to be paid into the town treasury for the use of the schools for 
violating this provision.* 

This was a more advanced step than Connecticut had yet taken, 
but it cannot be said to have been a much greater one than 
that taken by England in the Hobhouse and Althorp Acts of 1825 
and 1833. The first of these made a more thorough restriction of 
the labor of children under sixteen years of age, and provided for a 
"quarter-holiday" on Saturday. By the act of 1833 the education 
of factory children was made compulsory. Children were not 
to work more than nine hours each day, and were required to 
spend two more hours daily in school, f 

*Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1836 (Boston, 1836), p. 950. 

t " It is said that this ' half-time ' principle was quite accidentally discovered. Some means, 
being sought whereby evidence should be available that a child was not working at a certain 
hour, it was suggested by Mr. Chadwick that presence in school would afford the best 
possible evidence."— Jevon s,pp. 55 and 56. 



42 The History of Compulsory Education 

Massachusetts modified this act of 1836, in 1837 or 1838, so as to 
release employers from liability to punishment, in case they were 
provided with sworn certificates that the children in their employ 
had attended school the length of time specified in the statute.* 
Horace Mann, who was secretary of the State Board of Education 
from the date of its organization in 1837 till 1848, wrote earnestly 
of this law in his report for 1840. He urged the necessity of 
' ' limiting the greed of both heartless employers and unnatural 
parents." f In 1842 legislation was effected limiting the hours of 
labor of children under twelve to ten each day. This was not 
up to the standard set by either the Connecticut law of the 
same year, or the English act of 1833. The Connecticut law had 
limited the hours of labor of children under fourteen to ten. \ The 
English act went one step further and limited the hours of labor for 
children between the ages of nine and thirteen to nine hours. || 

From this date until 1866 most of the legislation relating to 
obligatory education had reference to the truancy problem, which 
had now become an exceedingly troublesome one.§ However, in 
1865, an act requiring eighteen weeks of all working children 
under twelve, and twelve weeks of all between twelve and fifteen, 
was passed. In this same year a resolution was passed by the 
legislature authorizing the governor to appoint a committee ' ' to 
collect information and statistics in regard to the hours of labor, 
and the conditions and prospects of the industrial classes." This 
committee was appointed by Governor Andrew in February of the 
next year. The commissioners first considered the education of 
children, and said in their report, "A saddening amount of testi- 
mony has been brought before the commissioners concerning the 

♦Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor of Massachusetts, 1876 
(Boston, 1S76), p. 264. 

f Ibid., p. 267. 

I Third Annua! Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of Connecticut for the 
year ending November 30, 1S87, p. 156. 

|| Supra, p. 41. 

§ Chapter IV. of this monograph is devoted to legislation on this question in Massachusetts. 



In New England. 43 

frequent and gross violations of the law."* The committee favored 
the "half-time" system and recommended the adoption of some 
plan that would lead to it if it were deemed best not to adopt it in 
detail. As an inducement to this they further recommended that 
where the "half-time" system was adopted and carried out in 
good faith the laws then in force pertaining to working children 
should not be considered binding. f These recommendations of the 
committee were not embodied in a statute. But the same year that 
this report was made, the most important piece of legislation 
yet given to Massachusetts on this subject was enacted. Under its 
provisions no child under the age of ten could be employed in any 
manufacturing establishment. Between the ages of ten and four- 
teen years, no child -could be so employed unless he had attended 
some public or private day school for not less than six months 
of the year preceding that in which his employment would begin. 
This school must have been approved by the school committee 
•of the place in which it was located. Any one knowingly employ- 
ing a child who had not had this school training was made 
liable to punishment by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars. The act 
made one other important provision. Children under the age of 
fourteen who were employed in manufacturing establishments under 
the conditions already specified were not to spend more than eight 
hours in labor in any one day. Parents and guardians were made 
responsible for any violations of this restriction, under penalty of a 
fine not exceeding fifty dollars for each offence. J In the next year, 
1867, another act relating to the education and the hours of labor 
of children employed in ' ' manufacturing and mechanical establish- 
ments" was passed. This act provided, as the one of 1866 had 
done, that no child under the age of ten could be employed in any 
manufacturing or mechanical establishment. Between this age and 
fifteen children could only be employed after they had attended 

♦Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor of Massachusetts, 1866, p. 273. 

f Ibid., p. 273. 

J Acts of Massachusetts, 1866, Chap. 273. 



44 The History of Compulsory Education 

some public or private day school under teachers approved by the 
school committee of the place where the school was located, for at 
least three months of the year preceding the one in which employ- 
ment was taken. They must also have resided six months in 
the state preceding the time their employment began. The school 
requirement was to continue every year until the age of fifteen, 
" Provided that tuition of three hours per day in a public or private 
day school approved by the school committee of the place in which 
such school is kept, during a term of six months, shall be deemed 
the equivalent of three months' attendance at a school kept in 
accordance with the customary hours of tuition ; and no time less 
than sixty days of actual schooling shall be accounted as three 
months, and no time less than one hundred and twenty half-days of 
actual schooling shall be deemed an equivalent of three months. ' ' * 

In 1869 an act was passed which authorized towns and cities to 
establish and maintain evening schools for children over twelve 
years of age ;f and three years later they were given the privilege 
and the authority to establish evening schools. % 

Legislation on this subject since 1872 to the present time has in 
principle been much as that found in the acts of 1866 and 1867. In 
1873, when the new compulsory attendance and truant laws were 
passed, a new act was introduced at the same session of the 
legislature to further regulate the problem of child labor. But it 
failed to pass. It was offered in the next two succeeding sessions 
but was not enacted into a law. However, in 1876 it became 
a statute. The main feature of this law was that it made the pre- 

* Acts of 1S67, Chap. 285. 

f Acts of 1869, Chap. 305. 

J Acts of 1872, Chap. 86. The history of evening schools in Massachusetts dates back 
to !773- In that year, such schools were carried on in Salem "to teach a limited number 
of poor boys the mariner's art, and others to write and cipher." In 1836 an evening school 
was established at the Warren Street Chapel in Boston, in connection with philanthropic 
Christian work. In 1847 legislative enactment authorized towns to support such schools for 
adults, and in 1S57, while leaving the support of such schools optional, they were made by 
legislation an integral part of the public school system. " In 1883 their support became com- 
pulsory in towns having ten thousand inhabitants." See Martin's " Evolution of the Massa- 
chusetts Public School System," pp. 218 and 219. 



In New England. 45 

vious legislation on this subject apply to mercantile establishments 
as well as to manufactories and mechanical enterprises. This 
action was taken because of the large number of small boys who 
had taken employment in the large retail stores as cash boys and 
errand boys.* The essential difference between this statute and 
those of 1866 and 1867 was that it applied to children between the 
ages of ten and fourteen, whereas in the latter statutes the age 
limit was from ten to fifteen years. These latter laws had been 
modified by the compulsory law of 1873. This had extended the 
time of required school attendance to twenty weeks, f This pro- 
vision was likewise extended to the new law. 

The next law was one passed in 1888. This prohibited the 
employment of any child under thirteen years of age ' ' in any 
factory, workshop, or mercantile establishment." Neither could 
such a child be employed in any indoor work, for wages, during 
the hours when the public schools of the place where he resides 
were in session unless he had attended school ' ' for at least 
twenty weeks as required by law." Children under fourteen years 
of age could be employed in factories, workshops, or mercantile 
establishments only during the vacation of the public schools of the 
place where they resided, unless the employer kept on file an 
"employment- ticket" and an "age and schooling ticket." The 
former ticket gave a description of the child to be employed, and 
contained a declaration of the employer's or agent's intention to 
employ him. The latter was a sworn statement made by the 
father, mother, or guardian of the child as to his age and to the 
effect that the requirements of the law as to schooling had been 
fully satisfied. % 



* Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 47^. 
t Ibid., p. 474. 

| " Labor Laws of Massachusetts," compiled by Horace G. Wadlin, Chief of the Bureau of 
Statistics of Labor (Boston, 1890), pp. 78-79. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Truancy Problem in Massachusetts, 
i 845-1 890. 

The truancy problem in Massachusetts had become a very 
perplexing one as early as 1845. It is stated in the school report 
of Boston for that year that the absences from the schools of the 
city, each day, were about one fifth of the whole number of children 
who should have been in attendance. A part of these absences 
may be explained on the ground that children employed in factories 
had complied with the provisions of the statute of 1842.* But 
as this statute was never enforced to any great extent it is safe 
to presume that many of the absences were violations of its pro- 
visions. However, there was another class of children who were 
not in school, and to whom the provisions of this statute did not 
apply. These were the children who were deprived of instruction 
either by the poverty or neglect of their parents, or by their 
own perversity. 

In 1846 measures began to be taken to secure the education 
of this class. The year previous, Josiah Quincy had taken the in- 
itiative that led to these measures. In 1845 he became mayor of 
Boston. Soon after his installation in office, he called the attention 
of the school committee to the magnitude of the evil of truancy, 
and urged the cooperation of the committee with the city council in 
devising coercive measures as remedies. The school committee re- 
ferred the subject to a special committee. Theophilus Parsons, 
who was made Dane professor of law in Harvard in 1847, was 
appointed chairman of this committee. Professor Parsons reported 

* Supra, p. 37. 

46 



Compulsory Education in New England. 47 

for the committee the next year. In this report he maintained that 
the existing laws were sufficient to correct the evils if they were 
properly executed. Under these laws ' 'stubborn children ' ' could 
be sent to the House of Correction. By them, too, authority was 
given to any justice of the courts on application of the mayor, any 
of the aldermen of the city, any director of the House of Industry 
or House of Reformation, or of any overseer of the poor, to 
sentence to the House of Reformation "all children who live an 
idle and dissolute life, whose parents are dead, or if living, from 
drunkenness or other vices neglect to provide any suitable 
employment or exercise any salutary control over said children. ' ' 
By the same procedure, authority was given for the transfer of any 
child who had been committed to the House of Correction, to the 
House of Reformation.* 

The committee proposed as a plan of action that police officers 
should ascertain what children had failed to enter their names at 
schools and if that failure was due to regular and proper employ- 
ment, or to other legitimate excuse. The plan further required 
that the names of ' ' all incorrigibly stubborn or habitually truant, 
children" who had regularly entered their names upon the school 
register should be reported monthly to the city government by the- 
various teachers. To aid in securing the execution of the plan the 
following orders were appended to the report for the consideration 
of the school committee : 

" 1. Ordered, That the several masters of the grammar and 
writing departments of the grammar schools report to the mayor of 
the city, in the first weeks of May and December of each year, the 
names of the children belonging to each school. 

"2. Ordered, That the several masters of the grammar and 
writing departments of the grammar schools report to the mayor, 
on the first Monday of each month, beginning with June next, 
whether there be in the school under their care any children who- 



♦Supplementary Report on Truancy and Compulsory Education, by John D. Philbrick, in; 
the Annual Report of the School Committee of Boston, 1861, p. 214. 



48 The History of Compulsory Education 

are incorrigibly stubborn or habitually truant ; and if so, their 
.names, and their residences, and the names of their parents when 
known. 

"3. 0?'dered, That this and the two preceding orders, together 
with the third section of the 'Act Concerning Juvenile Offenders 
in the City of Boston,' be printed in large letters and conspicu- 
ously posted in each grammar school ; and that the same be read 
to the assembled scholars by the masters, on the first Monday of 
each month."* 

With some slight modification in the wording, these orders 
became a part of the " rules of regulation of the schools" in May, 
1846. In part they remained in force until 1857. In the revision 
of the rules in 1848 the third order was omitted. The first was 
repealed in 1851, and the words "beginning with June next," in 
the second, were struck out. Other changes were made in 1852 
and 1855. In 1857 the order was made to read: "Teachers 
having charge of pupils who are habitually truant shall report 
their names, residences, and the names of their parents or 
guardians to the truant officers of the district, "f 

The evils of truancy were not confined to the Boston schools. 
They were felt in other cities and towns of the state, and in some of 
them were the subject of much earnest discussion. Mr. Horace 
Mann, then secretary of the State Board of Education, fully appre- 
ciated the magnitude of these evils, and made them important 
themes in his various reports. These discussions had their influ- 
ence. By 1848 they had developed considerable sentiment 
throughout the state favorable to legislation by the General Court 
making truancy a criminal offence punishable by fine and imprison- 
ment. Boston took an important step in this year toward securing 
such legislation. Mayor Quincy again called the attention of the 
city government to the magnitude of the evils. He urged the 



* The third section of the "Act Concerning Juvenile Offenders of the City of Boston " is 
the one referred to on page 47. 
t Philbrick's Report on Truancy, in Boston School Report, 1861, p. 215. 



In New England. 49 

necessity of more effective measures in dealing with truants. It 
does not appear that his recommendation met with any action 
by the city council. But at a meeting of the school committee, 
November 15, an order was passed authorizing the appointment of 
a committee to consider the evils of truancy and to report measures 
to be taken to lessen it. The committee made their report Decem- 
ber 20. They submitted a list of all ' ' vagrant and truant children' ' 
in the city and recommended that the expediency of petitioning the 
legislature for new and more stringent laws be referred to the new 
board which would be organized in January, 1849. 

Soon after the installation of the new board, an order was passed 
calling on Mayor Bigelow for information relative to what had been 
done by the city government toward securing the regular attend- 
ance of all children who were not members of private schools at the 
public schools. The order contained the still more important pro- 
vision authorizing the mayor "to apply to the legislature for 
all necessary power to secure the attendance of such scholars." In 
response to this order, a report which had been submitted to the 
mayor by the city marshall was laid before the committee February 
7, 1849. This report did not pretend to be complete. It stated 
that statistics had been obtained of ten hundred and sixty-six 
truant and vagrant children. These children were between the 
ages of six and sixteen years. Of the number reported, eight hun- 
dred and eighty-two were males and one hundred and eighty -four 
females. The marshall also gave it as his opinion that complete 
statistics would reveal no less than fifteen hundred children of this 
class in the city.* 

Through the medium of the public press, the contents of this re- 
port were widely disseminated. The attention of the public having 
been thus directed to the evil, legislative action was demanded. 
The school committee of Boston, at its meeting of March 7, passed 
an order requesting the city government to devise immediately 
such measures as were necessary to secure the regular attendance of 

* Ibid., p. 222. 



5<d The History of Compulsory Education 

all idle and truant children of the city at school. About this time 
also a bill which had been prepared by a committee appointed 
by the school board, and of other gentlemen, was introduced in the 
legislature dealing with the question.* Certain members of the 
legislature, however, were opposed to a compulsory law, and their 
influence was sufficient to defeat the bill. 

The teachers of the state now took up the question and ad- 
vocated the principles of the rejected bill. In November, 1849, 
the State Teachers' Association convened at Worcester. At this 
meeting Joshua Bates, Jr., of Boston, gave an address favoring the 
enactment of a law for the prevention of ' ' truancy and irregular at- 
tendance upon school." The address met with the approval of the 
teachers. John D. Philbrick introduced a resolution to the effect 
that the association endorsed the object contemplated in the 
address, and that the members should deem it their duty to use 
their influence to secure its accomplishment. Earnest discussion 
followed the introduction of this resolution, Professor Agassiz 
taking part in it. The resolution was not endorsed. In its stead a 
more practical one was adopted. This asked for the appointment 
of a committee of five "to petition the General Court to enact 
a law upon the subject of Truancy." f 

Public opinion had by this time become thoroughly prepared for 
coercive measures. The efforts of the committee were not un- 
availing. On May 3, 1850, the General Court enacted a law 
authorizing the cities and towns of the commonwealth ' ' to make all 
needful provisions and arrangements concerning habitual truants 
and children not attending school, without any regular and lawful 
occupation, growing up in ignorance, between the ages of six 
and fifteen years." Authority was given likewise for the enact- 
ment of such municipal ordinances relative to this class of children 
as should ' ' be deemed most conducive to their welfare and the 



* Ibid., p. 224. 

■f-This committee consisted of W. D. Swan of Boston, the mover of the resolution, Elbridge 
Smith of Cambridge, C. Northend of Salem, C. S. Pennell of Charlestown, and Levi Reed of 
Roxbuiy. Afterwards Joshua Bates, Jr., and T. Sherwin were added to it. 



In New England. 51 

good order of such city." Such ordinances, however, must have 
been approved by the Court of Common Pleas. The statute gave 
authority, too, for the appointment of three or more persons whose 
duty it was to make complaint to any justice of the peace, or 
any other judicial officer, of all violations of the ordinances. The 
justices were not required to assess the fine in case the violation 
was proved but in their discretion could confine the offender for 
such time as they deemed expedient, in "such institution of in- 
struction or house of reformation, or other suitable situation, as 
.maybe assigned or provided for the purpose."* In July of this 
same year, the school committee of Boston requested the city 
council to enact such ordinances as would enable it to avail itself of 
the provisions of this statute. It was not until October 21 that 
this was done. Then with the approval of the Court of Common 
Pleas for the county of Suffolk, the necessary ordinance was passed. 
The third section of this ordinance set apart the ' ' House for 
the Employment and Reformation of Juvenile Offenders ' ' as the 
"institution of instruction" specified in the statute, f It was not, 
however, till 1852 that truant officers were appointed. This delay 
was due to the objection in the minds of some relative to two 
features of the law. The law gave to the court authority for 
assessing the fine, but in case of its non-payment, it prescribed no 
action on the part of the court for enforcing it. Again, should the 
court having jurisdiction sentence the culprit to the institution pro- 
vided, instead of assessing a fine, the period of the confinement was 
left to the discretion of the judicial officer. These objections were 
both overcome by the statute of 1852. This gave authority to the 
judicial officer in case of default of the payment of the fine, to 
confine the culprit in the institution provided for a term not 
to exceed one year. At the discretion of the court, punishment by 
confinement might be given as the original sentence, instead of a 
fine. In this event, as in the punishment inflicted for non-payment 



* Statutes of 1850, Chap. 294. 

fPhilbrick's Report on Truancy, in Boston School Report, 1861, p. 215. 



52 The History of Compulsory Education 

of the fine, the term of confinement was not to exceed one year.* 
Boston, after the enactment of the statute of 1852, made arrange- 
ment for the enforcement of its provisions. The House for the 
Employment and Reformation of Juvenile Offenders was set apart 
by city ordinance as the institution which the act specified should 
be provided. f In April of 1853, the report of the truant officers of 
the city of Boston was made. In this report objection was made to 
the lenity with which the court fixed the term of confinement. 
One officer remarks: "One great objection to the truant law 
is the term of service being limited to one year, and I think 
it should be so amended that they [the truants] could be sent for an 
unlimited time." J Most of the sentences had been for either three 
or six months. In the case of the more hardened delinquents there 
was little, if any, improvement on the expiration of their sentence. 
The matter was again brought to the attention of the General 
Court. A third act since 1850 was passed in this year dealing with 
truancy. 

The new statute was a great improvement over the former ones 
in at least two particulars. It gave the cities and towns of the state 
authority to transfer jurisdiction from the courts that had had 
it under the other two acts, to the police courts. It also extended 
the term for which an offender might be confined to two years. || 

In the next year, an act was passed concerning truants in 
Boston. The only provision contained in this statute that is 
not found in the earlier statutes applying to all of the municipalities 
of the state related to minors who had neither parent nor guardian. 
It gave to the police justices authority to discharge such persons, 
if a fine had been assessed for violation of the provisions relating 
to truancy, on proof that they were without means to pay it.§ 

* Statutes of 1852, Chap. 283. 

f'The House for the Employment and Reformation of Juvenile Offenders " was established 
in South Boston in 1826. Later it was removed to Deer Island. 
} Quoted from Philbrick's Report on Truancy, in Boston School Report, 1S61, p. 233. 
|| Statutes of 1853, Chap. 343. 
I Statutes of 1854, Chap. 88. 



In New England. 53 

By 1859 the various provisions of these laws were consolidated 
into a general statute. This gave the towns and cities the authority 
to make such provisions as were needful concerning truants and 
children growing up in ignorance. The law applied to all children 
between the ages of five and sixteen. It also increased the power 
of the truant officers. By it, they were not only to make com- 
plaint, but they were to carry into execution the judgments of the 
courts. The courts too were given greater authority in passing 
sentence than they had had formerly. They could fine the delin- 
quent, or sentence him to an institution of instruction or reforma- 
tion as under the previous laws. They were not required to 
do either. In their discretion the sentence might be the providing 
of the delinquent with a situation for work.* 

This law remained in force till 1862. Then a new law was 
enacted essentially modifying the previous statute. The various 
statutes enacted from 1850 till this time had never been put into 
execution in many parts of the state. They had failed to accom- 
plish their purpose for the reason that it was made optional 
with municipalities whether or not they should enact ordinances 
to enforce them. Thus they had never been given a fair trial, and 
for this reason had done but little in the way of correcting the evils 
of truancy. 

The new law gave to "each city and town" the authority to 
make ' ' all needful provisions and arrangements concerning habit- 
ual truants, and also concerning children wandering about in the 
streets or public places of any city or town, having no lawful 
occupation or business, not attending school and growing up in 
ignorance, "f Besides making it mandatory on the towns and 
cities to make this provision, it more clearly defined than had been 
done heretofore the distinction between truancy and absenteeism. 
Lastly, the ages of children to which the law applied was from 
seven to sixteen. In the previous statutes it had been applied to 

* Report of the Commissioner of Education for 18S8-89, Vol. I., p. 472. 
f Statutes of 1862, Chap. 207. 



54 The History of Compulsory Education 

all children between the ages of five and sixteen. Just why this 
change was made is not apparent. If a child at the age of five or 
six is old enough to wander "about in the streets or public places," 
he is certainly old enough to be amenable to a law that will take 
him from them, and put him where he will be under less corrupting 
influences. 

In compliance with the act of 1862, quite a large number of the 
cities and towns enacted ordinances to enforce the statute. But 
when compared with the total number of such municipalities in the 
state, this number was small. Out of three hundred and thirty-five 
towns and cities in 1865, but seventy-seven had made provisions for 
the appointment of truant officers.* In the next year the number 
was ninety-eight. f Before the end of the year 1862 Boston 
had found it difficult to enforce the law. It was defective in that it 
did not specify what court should have jurisdiction in cases arising 
under it. In the year following, the General Court passed a 
new act remedying the defect. By this, jurisdiction was given 
to ' ' either of the justices of the police court of the city of Boston, 
and any judge or justice of any police court, and any trial justice in 
this state. ' ' % 

With this modification relating to the city of Boston, the law 
of 1862 remained substantially as it was when enacted till 1873. 
Then the laws relating to truancy were reconstructed, and several 
improvements made. The truant officers were made the agents of 
the school committees instead of the municipality. The provision 
making truancy punishable by a fine was omitted, and for the first 
time the municipalities were required "to provide suitable places 
for the 'confinement, discipline, and instruction' of truant chil- 
dren." || Besides these changes, it was made the duty of the 
county commissioners on the request of three or more cities or 



* Rice's Report, p. 70. 

t Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 473. 

t Statutes of 1863, Chap. 44. 

|| Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 474. 



In New England. 55 

towns in any county to provide other places for the reception 
•of truants than the county jail or house of correction. This took 
from truancy the criminal character which had been given to it 
in all the previous legislation on the subject. Heretofore, the 
■efforts of the state had been in the direction of punishment. Now 
this was changed, and its efforts were directed toward reformation. 

The same tardiness was manifested by the towns in putting this 
law into execution as had been with the law of 1862. Where it 
was enforced it proved fairly efficient, and greatly lessened the evils 
-at which it was directed. But in 1875, only one hundred and thirty 
towns out of three hundred and forty-one in the state had ap- 
pointed truant officers.* To induce the towns to comply with 
the provisions of the law, it was enacted in 1878 that all towns fail- 
ing to make the required provisions should forfeit their share of the 
income of the school fund. This provision had the desired effect. 
In 1879 two hundred and fourteen towns were reported as enforcing 
the law.f 

In 1 88 1 provision was made by the General Court for the estab- 
ment of union truant schools in certain counties. The privilege 
was extended in 1884 to two, three, or four adjoining counties. J 
At the end of the year of 1890-91, county truant schools had 
been established in Essex, Berkshire, Hampshire, Hampden, and 
Worcester, and the counties of Bristol, Norfolk, and Plymouth 
had combined in the establishment of a union truant school. || 

An amendment was made to the truant law in 1889, which 
abolished poverty as an exemption from complying with the law. 
At the same time some slight changes in the sections relating to 
the duty of truant officers were made. The officers still remained 
the agents of the school committees. It was also their duty to 
inquire into the reasons of the failure of any to comply with the 



* Ibid., p. 474. 
flbid., p. 475. 
t Ibid., p. 478. 
,|| Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Board of Education (Massachusetts), 1890-91, p. 260. 



56 History of Compulsory Education in New England. 

provisions of the general compulsory law.* Under the direction of 
the school committees, they were required to prosecute, in the name 
of the municipality, such violations as came to their notice. Juris- 
diction of all such cases was given to ' ' police, district, and munici- 
pal courts"; trial justices and judges of the probate courts were 
also to have "jurisdiction within their respective counties. "f 

This law, with the provisions for the employment of children and 
the general compulsory law, makes a complete obligatory system. 
In the main, they are all well enforced. State Superintendent John 
W. Dickinson writes to the commissioner of education under date 
of January 27, 1890, as follows: "The compulsory law operates 
well, and is generally obeyed. The employment law is quite thor- 
oughly enforced. There is not much temptation in rural districts 
to break these laws, so not so much stringency is required to 
enforce them as in cities."^ 

* See Chapter V. of this monograph. 

■fSee Section 3 of act quoted in Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., 
p. 482. 
\ Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 486. 



CHAPTER V. 

The General Compulsory Laws of New England. 
1852-1890. 

The truancy law of 1850 prepared the way for broader legislation 
in Massachusetts. Accordingly, two years later, it was made the 
duty of every person having under his control a child between 
the ages of eight and fourteen, to send him to the public schools of 
the place where he resided not less than twelve weeks each year, if 
the school was in session that long. Six weeks of this period was 
required to be consecutive. Failure to comply with these pro- 
visions made the offender liable to a fine, not exceeding twenty 
dollars for each offence. However, if it was shown to either 
the truant officers, or the school committee, that the absence of any 
child from school was due to his having otherwise been provided 
with the means of education for the same period of time, or if 
it was due to poverty of the parent or guardian, or to some physi- 
cal or mental condition of the child that would prevent his applica- 
tion to study, the fine was not to be incurred. While the 
submission of Rjoper evidence to either the truant officers or the 
school committee gave to these officials the authority to excuse 
from attendance, the enforcement of the law was no part of their 
duty. That duty rested with the town treasurers.* This provision 
proved to be a defect which prevented the efficient execution of the 
law. It is clearly evident that the proper executive officers should 
have been the school committees, working through truant officers. 
As it was, the town treasurers did little or nothing, and from the 
date of its enactment until 1873 the history of the law is little more 
than a record of failures. An attempt was made in 1859 to remedy 

* General Statutes, Chap. 41. 

57 



58 The History of Compulsory Education 

this defect by placing the town treasurers under a penalty of twenty 
dollars for failure to prosecute after due notification had been given 
by either the school committee or the truant officers that the 
law had been violated. But this failed to secure its enforcement, 
and soon it practically became a dead letter. 

It is evident from the report of General Oliver, in 1870, that the 
law was ignored ; and that the provisions of the employment 
and truancy acts, then in force, were openly violated. He said, 
in speaking of this law : ' ' Nobody looks after it — neither town 
authorities, nor school committees, nor local police — and the large 
cities and many of the towns of the state are full of unschooled 
children, vagabondizing about the streets and growing up in igno- 
rance and to a heritage of sin. The mills all over the state, the 
shops in city and towns are full of children deprived of their right 
to such education as will fit them for the possibilities of their after 
life, and nobody thinks of obeying-the school laws. In fact, most 
persons are ignorant that there is any such law, so that between 
those so ignorant and those that care for none of these things, 
we have no right to boast of compulsory education in Massachu- 
setts."* In this same year, also, Superintendent White recom- 
mended that the legislature direct "the Board of Education or such 
other competent body as may be deemed proper to take into con- 
sideration all existing laws relating to school attendance, truancy, 
absenteeism, and the employment of children in manufacturing 
establishments, and inquire what alterations and amendments are 
needed to combine said enactments into a uniform, consistent, and 
efficient code adapted to the present views and wants of the 
public. ' ' The same recommendation was made by the State Board 
of Education the next year, and as a result the law of 1873 was en- 
acted, f This changed the period of enforced attendance from eight 
to fourteen years, as provided in the statute of 1852, to that from 

* Report of Commissioner of Education, 1871, p. 214. Quoted there from the Thirty-fourth 
Annual Report of the Board of Education, and of the Secretary of the Board (Massachusetts) t 
for the year 1S70. 

+ Report of Commissioner of Education, 1SSS-89, Vol. I., p. 474. 



In New England. 59 

eight to twelve years. The reason of this change can probably be 
found in the increased number of weeks which each child was 
required to attend to school. The required attendance was now 
fixed at twenty weeks annually. But the most important feature of 
the new law was the placing of the responsibility for its execution 
on the school committees.* Under the law of 1852, this responsi- 
bility had been a divided one. It was the duty of the school com- 
mittees to make inquiries concerning violations, and then to report 
them to the town treasurers, whose duty it was to make prosecu- 
tions. Now, prosecutions were to be made by agents of the school 
committees — the truant officers. 

This law of 1873, together with the provisions relating to truancy 
and those of the Employment Act of 1876, made a complete system 
of obligatory education. This system continued in operation till 
1889, when it received several important modifications. The 
general compulsory law of the system, however, worked only fairly 
well. Mr. George A. Walton, agent of the State Board of Educa- 
tion, says of it in his report of 1886 : "There is one provision 
in our compulsory laws which is almost entirely inoperative ; it 
is the section which imposes a fine upon the parent for neglecting 
to send his child to school for twenty weeks each year. Instances 
of such neglect are common. We often hear of them, but seldom 
of the parent paying the fine. ' ' f 

By the amendments of 1889, the age limit to which the law was 
applicable was changed to that of the old statute of 1852. The 
period of required attendance remained the same as in 1873, but 
the time was divided into two terms of ten weeks, each of which 
was required to be consecutive. The exemptions provided for non- 
compliance with these regulations were other adequate means of in- 
struction, an already acquired knowledge of the subjects required 
by law to be taught in the public schools, and such physical 
and mental condition as would render their attendance at school 



* Ibid., p. 474. 
t Ibid., p. 475. 



60 The History of Compulsory Education 

impracticable. Poverty was to be no longer a legal justification for 
the non-education of children. This was a step in advance, for too 
frequently such an exemption becomes but a cloak to cover the 
greed or negligence of parents and guardians. 

More important than any of the features of the law that have 
been stated is the provision regulating private schools. Attendance 
at such schools could be considered as fulfilling the requirements of 
the law only when they had been approved by the school commit- 
tees. The conditions imposed for approval were the teaching of all 
the subjects required by law in the English language, equal 
thoroughness and efficiency in the teaching as that given in the 
public schools of the place where the private school was located. 
Finally, it was required that the progress of the pupils in such 
schools should be equal to that of those attending the public 
schools during the same time.* 

On June 4, 1890, an amendment was made extending the time of 
required attendance from twenty to thirty weeks, if the schools 
were in session that long. In other respects the law remains sub- 
stantially the same as in 1889.! The law as it stands is well 
enforced and is accomplishing the purpose intended. In the school 
year of 1890-91, two hundred and twelve towns, out of three hun- 
dred and fifty-one, had an average of over ninety per cent of 
the pupils at school every day ; and of this number, eighteen 
had an attendance of over ninety-five per cent. Only eleven 
towns throughout the state had an attendance below eighty per 
cent. % 

This law in its requirements is similar to the one passed by the 
Prussian Diet during the same summer. The Prussian law is 
of greater stringency, and makes the period of required attendance 
extend from the ages of six to fourteen. This insures the child two 



* Ibid., pp. 481-482. The law is given in full. 

+ Fifty-fifth Annual Report of the Board of Education (Massachusetts), 1890-91, pp. 
63 and 64. 
\Ibid. (See Tables.) 



In New E?igland. 61 

years more of schooling than is required in Massachusetts. The 
penalty for non-compliance with the provisions of the law is a fine 
varying from ten pennies to one mark for each day of non-attend- 
ance. This fine must be paid immediately, and if it is not, the 
convicted person may be imprisoned from three hours to one day. 
Instead of imprisonment, however, there is a provision by which 
the delinquent ' ' may work for the same number of hours for the 
benefit of the community, each according to his aptitudes."* Both 
laws establish the conditions under which private schools may 
be attended. In Prussia they must be equal to the public ele- 
mentary schools, and when they are not, the inspectors are given 
the authority to enforce the attendance of the children at the public 
schools, f 

Just how much of the Massachusetts law has been derived from 
Prussian precedent is not clear. It is, however, probable that 
from this or other German source the provision relating to private 
schools was obtained. As far back as 1850, Prussia began to 
exercise state control over such schools. In the constitution 
signed and sworn to by Frederick William IV., on January 31 of 
that year, is the declaration that ' ' all public and private educa- 
tional institutions are under the supervision of the state authori- 
ties. "X The example set by Massachusetts in this particular has 
been followed by several other states of the Union. So far as 
Massachusetts is concerned, the chief significance of this pro- 
vision lies in the tendency of the state to assume still greater 
control over such schools. If attendance at private schools is to be 
accepted in lieu of that at the public schools, then the assumption 
of greater authority by the state is inevitable ; and the same 
qualifications, scholastic and professional, which it requires of the 
teachers in the public schools, ought and must be required of those 

*Klemm's " Compulsory Education in Prussia" in Report of Commissioner of Education, 
1888-89, Vol. I., p. 531. 
flbid., p. 531. 
J Ibid., p. 530 ; see Article 23 of the constitution. 



62 The History of Compulsory Education 

in private schools. Only in such a course can the state be just 
to itself. In no other way can it guarantee to that class of children 
who attend such schools equal privileges as those enjoyed by 
the children that attend the public schools. 

The present law of Connecticut had its beginning in 1872. The 
year previous, Dr. B. G. Northrop went to Europe and made 
a study of the working of the compulsory laws in several countries. 
On his return he gave the results of his investigations in his report 
on ' ' Obligatory Education. ' ' This was a strong factor in bringing 
about the law of 1872, and it had a decided influence in stimulating 
legislation in other states. 

When the bill for this law was proposed, it contained a provision 
exempting all parents whose ' ' pecuniary condition was such as to 
render the attendance of their children inexpedient or impracti- 
cable." Before the bill was passed by the house, this provision was 
struck out by a unanimous vote, and the state was committed 
to the position that poverty shall not be a just cause for the depri- 
vation of any child of educational advantages. In 1871 a law had 
been passed requiring all parents or guardians to put their children 
who had been discharged from employment under the act of 1869 
into school. At the same time the Employment Act of 1869, and 
the Truant Act of 1865, which had been modeled on the then exist- 
ing truant law of Massachusetts, were incorporated with it. While 
these laws were applicable to all children, the compulsory system 
was not fully established until the law of 1872 was enacted.* This 
law has been amended several times since then. As it now stands 
it requires all parents or guardians having children between the 
ages of eight and sixteen to send them "to a public day school 
regularly during the hours and terms while the public schools 
in the district wherein such child resides are in session, "f If the 
child has received thorough instruction during ' ' the hours and the 
terms" that the public schools are in session through other means, 



♦Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-S9, Vol. I., p. 487. 
t Ibid., p. 488. (The law is quoted in full.) 



In New England. 63 

then he is excused from attendance upon the public schools. 
Neither is this provision applicable to children who have attended 
school twenty-four weeks of the preceding twelve months, nor 
to children who are between thirteen and fourteen, and who have 
attended twelve weeks during that period and who are legitimately 
employed to labor at home or elsewhere. Children who are over 
fourteen years of age and are lawfully employed are also excused. 
The penalty fixed for each week's failure to comply with these pro- 
visions is a fine of not more than five dollars. Like the Massachu- 
setts law there is a provision regulating private schools, but it is 
less rigid in its requirements. Attendance at such schools is 
sufficient only when the persons who have control of them keep 
a register of the attendance of all scholars in "the form and 
manner prescribed by the State Board of Education for the public 
schools." During the regular school hours this register must 
be open for the inspection of the secretary and the agents of the 
Board of Education.* The great defect of this provision is the 
want of any requirements relative to the character of the instruction 
given in these schools. The state seems to regard it as sufficient 
that children attend such schools without giving any heed as 
to whether the instruction given in them will compare favorably 
with that given in the public schools. This makes the pro- 
vision manifestly much weaker in point of efficiency than that of the 
Massachusetts law. The provision is probably sufficient to enable 
the state to determine whether or not the attendance requirements 
are complied with. It does more than this. The provision giving 
the state authority to inspect the registers of such schools, and that 
requiring reports relative to their conditions from the ' ' teachers or 
persons who control them" fully establishes the principle of the 
right of the state to interfere in matters pertaining to the education 
of its youth, and may serve as an excellent precedent for more 
exacting regulations. 

The provisions for the execution of the law are much better than 

*Ibid., p. 488. 



64 The History of Compulsory Education 

in Massachusetts. In the latter state this is done through local 
authorities. In Connecticut the law is administered directly by the 
state. In 1888 four agents of the State Board of Education 
were charged with the execution of the law. In most instances 
the local authorities have cooperated with these, but it is seldom 
they take the initiative. In 1889 the local authorities in but three 
towns out of fifty acted.* The law is unremittingly enforced, and 
because of this proves itself efficient. 

In the other states there is not the same efficiency as in 
Massachusetts and Connecticut. Legislation on this subject in 
Maine began in 1875. However, as early as 1850 a law had 
been enacted looking toward compulsory attendance. Section 
13 of this statute authorized towns to make "such by-laws, not 
repugnant to the laws of the state, concerning habitual truants 
and children between six and seventeen years of age not attending 
school, without any regular and lawful occupation, and growing up 
in ignorance, as are most conducive to their welfare and the good 
order of society ; and may annex a suitable penalty, not exceeding 
twenty dollars, for any breach thereof ; but said by-laws must 
be first approved by a judge of the supreme judicial court, "f This 
law availed but little. It was not a positive mandate of the state 
for the eradication of ignorance, but left to each locality the solu- 
tion of the question whether all the children should be entitled 
to school privileges. The statute of 1875 was a decided improve- 
ment, yet it was very defective. By its provisions parents were re- 
quired to send their children between the ages of nine and fifteen 
years to either a public or private school for a term of not less than 
twelve weeks in each year. For non-compliance, parents were 
to be fined five dollars, and boys who neglected or refused to 
attend school forfeited the same amount. If children had been 
taught at home, or if the physical or mental health of the child was 
such as to render attendance at school impracticable, or if the child 

♦Connecticut School Report, 1889, p. 44. 

t Report of Commissioner of Education, 1S71, p. 204. 



In New England. 65 

lived farther than one and a half miles ' ' by the shortest traveled 
road from any school" attendance at school was not required. 
The execution of this law devolved on the school committees 
and the supervisors.* 

It seems that but little good resulted from this statute. Perhaps 
this was due to its inefficient execution. State Superintendent 
Luce said of it, in 1887, "I know that its enforcement was 
generally found to be impracticable whenever any supervisor who 
sought to enforce it in some aggravated case of absenteeism came 
to the question of ways and means, "f A substitute for this statute 
was enacted in 1887. This required every person "having under 
his control a child between eight and fifteen years of age to send it 
to a public school sixteen weeks each year, divided as far as 
possible into two terms of eight weeks each, unless it has been 
instructed elsewhere or labors under some bodily or mental dis- 
ability. Any one not complying is to forfeit not more than twenty- 
five dollars. Cities and towns are required to elect truant officers, 
who are to enforce this law." The neglect of any city, town, 
or truant officer to comply with these provisions was made punish- 
able by a fine of from ten to fifty dollars. Provisions were also- 
made for committing boys between the ages of ten and fifteen years 
to the State Reform School if they should be found wandering 
about the streets during school hours ; " but if satisfactory pledges 
are obtained from him or the person having him in charge that in 
the future he will conform to the requirements, he shall not be 
prosecuted so long as the pledges are faithfully kept." State 
Superintendent Luce wrote the Bureau of Education at Wash- 
ington, January 28, 1890, regarding this law as follows : "As to its 
efficiency in securing the ends desired, the result depends largely 
upon the activity and efficiency of truant officers, and this upon the 
countenance and interest of the communities of the towns of 
the state. In many cities and towns the increase of average at- 



♦Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 517. 
t Ibid. 



•66 The History of Compulsory Education 

tendance has been marked ; in others little change has been 
discernible. The passage of the law has been too recent to de- 
cide upon the actual or prospective results to be secured by its 
general enforcement."* 

In 1867 an attempt was made in Vermont to compel the attend- 
ance at school of all children between the ages of eight and 
fourteen. Three years later an amendment having particular 
reference to its enforcement was made ; but it seems to have 
been inoperative and soon became obsolete. In 1888 the law was 
entirely remodeled. Originally the period of obligatory attendance 
had been twelve weeks; this was now extended to twenty. Another 
excellent provision made illiterate children under fourteen years of 
.age ineligible for employment while the public schools were in 
session, f The weak feature of the law was a provision virtually 
making the initiation of proceedings depend on the complaint 
■of "three voters in the district." The commissioner of educa- 
tion is undoubtedly right when he says of this provision, "All 
experience goes to show that the complaints of voters or taxpayers 
have never yet set in motion the machinery for enforcing a com- 
pulsory law. "J The law seems to have failed to accomplish its 
purpose. At any rate, the report of the state superintendent 
for 1890 reveals the fact that out of 38,000 children between 
the ages of eight and fourteen, 2,600 were not in school at any 
time during the year; and many who had enrolled failed to meet 
the time requirements. || 

New Hampshire made provisions for obligatory attendance in 
1871. A truant law, however, had been passed about twenty years 
before this.§ The statute of 1871^ required of all children between 
the ages of eight and fourteen who resided within two miles of 

* Ibid. 

t See summary of the law in Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 513. 

\ Ibid. 

|| Vermont School Report, 1890, p. 314. 

§ Report of Commissioner of Education, 18S8-89, p. 513. 

f Approved July 14. 



In New England. 67 

a public school, twelve weeks' attendance, six weeks of which were 
to be consecutive. The board of education or the ' ' superintending 
school committee of such district ' ' could excuse because of the 
physical or mental ills of the child, or if it was shown that ' ' such 
child was instructed in a private school, or at home, for at least 
twelve weeks during such year, in the branches of education re- 
quired to be taught in the public schools, or having acquired those 
branches, in other more advanced studies." For violation of these 
provisions, a fine of ten dollars was to be assessed for the first, and of 
twenty dollars ' ' for each subsequent offence, to be recovered as in 
an action of debt." Furthermore, a penalty was attached for the 
non-execution of the law by the school officers.* In 1878 a general 
factory law had been passed, f Three years later amendments were 
made prohibiting the employment of a child under sixteen years of 
age during the time the school was in session, in any manufacturing 
establishment, unless he had attended school- at least twelve weeks 
in the preceding year, or unless he could write legibly, and could 
"read fluently in readers of the grade usually classed as third 
readers." If the child so employed was under fourteen, he 
was required to have attended school in the district where he 
resided for at least six months in the preceding school year if 
the school was in session that long, if not then he must have been 
in attendance during the entire session. The penalty for the 
employment of children under other conditions than these was 
fixed at twenty dollars for each offence. \ Relative to the en- 
forcement and the efficiency of these statutes the commissioner 
of education in his report for 1888—89 II says: "No information 
can be obtained that the compulsory clauses of the above law§ have 
been enforced. The state reports of recent years contain scarcely a 

♦Report of Commissioner of Education, 1871, p. 281. 

fSee General Laws of New Hampshire, 1878 ; Sections 11 and 12, Chap. 91. 
% Report of Commissioner of Education, 1882-83, p. XXXIII. See also Report of Commis- 
sioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 513. 
|| Vol. I., p. 514. 
§ Law of 1 871. 



68 The History of Compulsory Education 

reference to the matter. Superintendent Folsom, of Dover, says : 
' I have never heard of a case of a suit of this kind in this state. 
I have had reason to believe that there have been, and are 
now, many children in this city whose parents are liable to the pen- 
alties prescribed by Section 18, though no legal complaint has ever 
been made to me.' "* In speaking of the enforcement of the 
efficiency of the employment laws, Superintendent Folsom says : 
' ' I find an impression quite prevalent that these laws are a dead 
letter with employers of children in this city. Whether or not this 
impression is correct, I have no means of knowing officially, as no 
taxpayer has ever made written complaint, and the law gives 
no authority for an investigation." 

As far back as 1854, Rhode Island enacted a law forbidding the 
employment of a child under fifteen years of age in any factory un- 
less such child had attended school for at least three months in the 
year preceding that in which he was employed. The law further 
provided that such a child should not be employed for a longer 
period than nine months in each year. The penalty for the viola- 
tion of these provisions by either the employers or guardian of the 
child was twenty dollars for each offence, f This law does not 
seem to have been rigidly enforced. Even if it was, it was not suf- 
ficient in itself to drive out illiteracy. In 1870, 5,014 children 
in the state were not in school during the year. This number 
was nearly thirteen per cent of the whole number of children 
between five and fifteen years of age.'l Commissioner Bicknell in 
his report for this year estimates the number of children who were 
unable to read and write at nearly ten thousand. Some of these 
were at work in the factories. || This would seem to be sufficient 
evidence that the factory law had fallen into disrepute. Probably it 

♦Quoted from Dover, New Hampshire, School Report, 1S87, p. 22. 

t Report of Commissioner of Education, 1SS2-83. p. XXXI V. 

% Report of Commissioner of Education, 1871, p. 336. The facts given in this report are 
based on the report of Hon. Thomas W. Bicknell for the year ending May 1, 1870. Mr. 
Bicknell was not at this time commissioner of education in Rhode Island. 

II Ibid. 



In New England. 69 

never met with general favor. These evils were not remedied until 
the law of 1883 was passed. The census of 1880 showed to the 
people that in Rhode Island, in proportion to its population, was a 
larger number of illiterates than in any other northern state. Here 
the per cent of illiteracy was eleven and two tenths while the aver- 
age for all the other Northern States was .less than six. * The reason 
of this must in part be attributed to the inoperation of the factory 
law. During the decade preceding this census, Massachusetts and 
Connecticut had stringent employment acts which were well en- 
forced, f Rhode Island thus became an inviting field to parents 
who opposed these restrictions. The want of restrictions in the 
employment of children in factories brought to the state a large 
foreign and illiterate population. Of the total population in 1870, 
nearly thirty-seven per cent were of foreign parentage. A large 
proportion of these could neither read nor write. J The number of 
this class increased during the decade following 1870. 

A full knowledge of the evil as revealed by the census of 1880 
led to measures for its eradication. State Superintendent Thomas 
B. Stockwell wrote in 1882 : "Already different localities have 
begun to move in the matter, and seek for means of self-protection, 
so far as they can be provided under existing laws. The city of 
Newport has already passed a truant ordinance, and several of the 
towns are considering the question." || In the next year a com- 
pulsory attendance law was enacted. Incorporated with this were 
provisions relating to the employment of children and to truancy. 
Beneficial results were experienced almost immediately. During 
the school year of 1882-83, the per cent of enrolled pupils to 
youth of school age was 73.07. This rose during the next year to 
77.54 per cent. The average daily attendance increased from 
48.89 per cent to 77.54 per cent during the same time.§ The 

•Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 501. 

fSee Chapter III. 

\ Report of Commissioner of Education, 1871, p. 336. 

|| Report of Commissioner of Education, 1888-S9, Vol. I., p. 501. 

§ Report of Commissioner of Education, 1SS3-84, p. 42. 



yo The History of Compulsory Education 

secretary of the Board of Education did not attribute this improve- 
ment entirely to the compulsory law. He says " that it was much 
more the result of better teaching, increased attractiveness in the 
schools, and wider interest in education."* Possibly the reason 
for this "better teaching, increased attractiveness in the schools, 
and wider interest in education" may be found in the evil con- 
ditions revealed by the census of 1880. The eradication of these 
conditions was the purpose of the compulsory law, and it is a sig- 
nificant fact that within a year after its enactment the schools were 
in better condition than ever before in their history. It is true that 
in some parts of the state the law was not rigorously enforced. In 
Providence it was ignored. In other parts, not infrequently, there 
were political reasons for not complying with its provisions. 

The law of 1883 was revised four years later. The chief changes 
effected were the imposition of a penalty upon cities and towns 
that failed to comply with the law, the transfer of jurisdiction to the 
district courts from the justice courts of the towns which had 
formerly had it, and, finally, the including of telegraph and 
telephone companies and mercantile establishments in the field of 
forbidden labor. The enforcement of the law has not been as 
rigorous as its friends had hoped for it. Still it has accomplished 
great good. The results it has accomplished have won friends for 
it and fully justify an obligatory system. In his' report for 1889, 
Superintendent Stockwell says: "While the law is enforced in 
very different degrees in different localities, still it is coming to be 
a recognized factor in nearly every town. There are but six 
towns that do not report some work under the law, and in most of 
those towns it is probable that there was really no occasion for the 
service of a truant officer. ' ' f 



The obligatory provisions of New England, as they are at 

* Ibid. 

t Rhode Island School Report, 1889, pp. ill and 112. Quoted here from the Report of the 
Commissioner of Education, 1888-89, Vol. I., p. 503. 



In New England. yi 

present, have changed in principle since the colonial era. As the 
various statutes now stand they constitute a species of class legisla- 
tion. The provisions relating to the employment of children and 
to truancy clearly evidence this. It is true that the general laws, 
like the old colonial provisions of Massachusetts and Connecticut, 
are applicable throughout the commonwealths. In colonial times, 
such legislation was but an amplification of the principle of 
universal education. Its purpose was preventive rather than 
remedial. The present general compulsory laws have the same 
design ; but in the class legislation referred to, especially that 
relating to truancy, the purpose is remedial. Its design is the 
correction of existing evils, and the conversion of the youth 
belonging to what is known as the ' ' dangerous and perishing 
classes" into good citizens. Such legislation is but a guarantee 
of the rights of the children of the state to be brought up under 
other than corrupting influences, and of the right to be so educated 
and trained as shall enable them to become honorable and useful 
citizens. It is in these rights, in that Lutheran principle "the 
safety of the state depends on an intelligent citizenship," and in. 
history that such legislation finds a complete justification. 



OCT 25 190! 



